Source: Sahmakum Teang Tnaut By: Raksa 21 October 2015
On 21st October 2015, Sahmakum Teang Tnaut’s ICT Project arranged a training session on the topic: “Dropbox Security” with activists from different communities in Phnom Penh. Mr. NGET Vanna, a Community Trainer Office, is the speaker. The session holds in Aden Restaurant.
This month the ICT project conducted two training sessions in order to strengthen the skills of community activists by securing their access to computers, smartphone, the internet, and other online tools.
On the first session, held May 22nd, participants learned about the Internet, with a focus on its definition, history, useful tools that are available online, and effective search engine methods. The second session, held on May 30th, focused on E-mail services; its definition, uses, and how to properly create and manage an E-mail address. The participants of the ICT project come from urban poor settlements in Phnom Penh, and many do not have access to the internet, computers or otherwise have the opportunity to learn about standard services such as E-mail.
The overall goal of the ICT Project is to offer training courses to community activists on how to effectively use computers, smartphones and social media to strengthen their knowledge and effectively advocate for human rights and land issues in Cambodia.
STT staff underwent a training session on April 28th in order to increase their knowledge of effective blogging strategies. 20 project staff members participated in order to learn the best methods of using BlogSpot and creating posts that will reach a wide diversity of audiences.
The staff capacity building sessions aim to reinforce the existing skills of staff members regarding technology, administration, and leadership, as well as to develop new skills regarding modern information and communication technologies. In addition, these sessions serve to allow staff to improve STT’s research methods, evidence-based advocacy, and to increase both STT’s and community activists’ on- and off-line safety and security in the urban sector.
On April 22nd and 27th STT continued with the ICT Project. This project involves 11 community activists, coming from different communities of Phnom Penh, receiving training on technological skills. The purpose of the project is to strengthen the urban poor community through its activists by teaching technological skills and social media platforms in order to promote human rights in Cambodia.
This month the training focused on strengthening the knowledge of the participants on understanding and using Khmer Unicode on the computer and smartphones. This will allow activists to become more comfortable typing and relaying information in Khmer and reach out to a larger audience in Cambodia.
Yesterday, on March 18th, 2015 STT conducted their first training session as part of the ICT Community Training Project. Ten community activists arrived at the STT computer lab in order to receive training on basic technological skills such as how to use standard computer programs. Future sessions will include how to use smartphones and different social media applications. The project will occur regularly each month until December of this year.
The purpose of conducting these sessions is to facilitate access to 3G+ devices for members in urban poor communities, which will allow their voices and opinions to be heard through social media. In the long run, the objective of the trainings sessions is to enable human rights defenders and community activists to use the best communication technology to report promptly, safely, and accurately. Through the mechanisms and strategies taught throughout the program, participants have the knowledge and means to raise any alerts when confronted by human rights violations in Cambodia.
What is ICT?
]Digital technology has become a key factor to reducing global poverty—mainly because it gives the poor access to vital information, such as weather forecasts and market pricing. This is the main message of the 2010 Information Economy Report from the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), which was published on October 14th.
In the developing world, most users access the Internet on a mobile phone. Thanks to ever-cheaper smartphones, lower rates, and expanding networks, more and more people in the developing world now have Internet access. According to the International Telecommunication Union, 2.3 billion people will have mobile-broadband subscriptions by the end of 2014, with 55% of them in developing countries (ITU, April 2014).
The situation is very different when it comes to personal computers (PCs) and fixed Internet, particularly broadband access. PC use in low-income countries is rare, and almost non-existent in rural areas. “A person in a developed country is on average over 600 times more likely to have access to fixed broadband than somebody living in a least-developed country”, according to the 2010 Information Economy Report (The Economist, Oct. 16th, 2010).
Information and communications technology (ICT) is the integration of telecommunications, computers, and other tech systems to enable users to access and transmit information. The Internet, which is just one component of ICTs, has played a fundamental role in its rapid progression.
As ICT usage has grown over the years, so has its importance to the developing world. “Information and communications technology is not a luxury but a catalyst for development, members of the International Broadband Commission agreed during the 10th meeting of Broadband Commission for Digital Development on Sunday in New York” (Devex, Sept. 22nd). The UNESCO Director-General explained, “ICTs are a critical enabler in achieving sustainable development, education, health, and gender and other development challenges…the transformational power of ICTs is immense” (Devex, Sept. 22nd).
Despite the success of such schemes as M-PESA, Safaricom’s popular mobile payment service in Kenya, there are reasons to be mindful of the barriers created by the use of ITC in poor countries as well. Even where people have access to a PC and the Internet, they often lack the necessary skills, in particular literacy, to use it. In fact, the adoption of ICTs can actually increase the gap between better-resourced enterprises and poorer ones, and can hinder development at a national level.
Skilled programmers in India, for example, can sell IT services around the world despite the low overall level of development of the Indian economy. India has masses of cheap, unskilled labor that ought to be attractive to companies wanting to set up low-cost manufacturing facilities. However, operating them would require at least some skilled workers, and their rising wages (created by trade in ICT services) makes it uneconomic for many manufacturers to hire the necessary talent.
To avoid this, policies to promote the use of ICT in poor countries need to be pro-poor and inclusive. Some NGOs and private companies are helping governments to do this. TechChange—a start-up that promotes the use of technology for development—“has taught more than 600 students in more than 70 countries through their online classroom. Its most popular course to date has been ‘Mobiles for International Development’”. Organizations such as Ushahidi and FrontlineSMS have created software that gives NGOs the ability to collect valuable data via text messages. Furthermore, it is now easier to provide health services to people in remote areas through enterprises such as MedicMobile (The Economist, June 27th, 2012).
How is STT using ICTs?
STT has made its own strides in the field with its own ICT program. It aims to support community activists by securing their access to computers, the Internet, online tools, and related training while also improving STT’s research methods and evidence-based advocacy.
In July, the ICT team hosted a training seminar for 10 representatives from different communities. With the support of the European Union, STT funded the training course and bought smartphones for use in the session. The purpose of the course was to teach community representatives how to use information technology and the Internet to circulate news regarding the abuse of land rights, human rights, evictions, security, and other urban issues.
Every month, STT hosts a workshop on the uses of social media for urban poor community activists in the computer lab. By encouraging community members to use social media for advocacy, STT hopes to increase participation and awareness of urban issues in Cambodia. STT has also focused on building staff capacity with ICTs: back in August, 25 employees participated in a workshop on Internet security.
International development is no longer monopolized by Western governments fixated on building schools and hydroelectric dams. The rapid evolution of ICTs has allowed for a vast assortment of start-ups, NGOs, and entrepreneurs to provide progressive and inclusive development services around the world.
By –Nick Jones (November 14th, 2014)
During a conference on Wednesday, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) presented their modern railway system project for Phnom Penh City, which is set to be completed in 2023. It is part of a multi-million dollar master plan to improve transportation in the capital city.
The railway will play a crucial role in reducing traffic congestion in the Phnom Penh. Currently, there is a distinct lack of public transportation—the city bus only has one line along Preach Monivong Blvd.
The planned railway is expected to accommodate approximately 72,500 to 81,600 travellers a day and will help Phnom Penh City adapt to the demands of globalization.
According to Mr. Trak Thaiseang, the Deputy of the Phnom Penh Council, if the project takes place, some residents (such as sugarcane juice sellers along the railway) will be forced to relocate. However, there are plans for new infrastructure such as a school, a health center, and new housing for evictees in order to ease the transition.
Get link from the Phnom Penh Post http://bit.ly/1pODacH
Facebook is a free social networking website that allows registered users to create profiles, upload photos and video, send messages and keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues. Currently, Facebook has more than 1 billion users in the world. Facebook users employ it in different ways. Some people use it for entertainment while others use it for business purposes.
On August 29th of 2014, the ICT project of Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT) conducted a monthly training course on Facebook to urban poor community activists at the STT computer lab. The Facebook training followed a two-part series of training in Khmer Unicode, and then Internet and Email. The 6 participants came from a variety of urban poor communities surrounding Phnom Penh City. The training aimed at strengthening the urban poor community activists’ knowledge by using technology for advocacy and by having them participating in urban poor development in Phnom Penh. The training was comprised of three important sessions: an introduction to Facebook, how to create a Facebook account, and practice sessions on its uses. The training also focused on using Facebook with a smart phone.
The ICT project team taught the community activists how to create and use Facebook to improve communication and share community information through social media. Participants were also able to find information on social media to expand their knowledge beyond traditional media outlets.
The first session, in the morning, was an introduction to Facebook. First, a trainer gave some facts on the social media giant. It is an unpaid social network and is extremely popular with social media users. Facebook became available in Cambodia in 2008 and has been gaining users here everyday since. Second, the advantages and disadvantages of Facebook were introduced to participants. The website is free of charge and allows you to engage with friends, family, literature, games, and so on. Most Cambodians use it for social and entertainment purposes. Nevertheless, there is still a risk for users to waste time if you don’t manage your time effectively. And like most Internet sites, there is always a chance of stumbling on fake information and/or immoral content.
In the second session, trainees were shown how to create a Facebook account. Participants were also given a chance to practice using the site during this session. After they had all created their own personal Facebook account under the instruction of the trainers, they were also taught how to do it on their smart phone by installing the Facebook application. The participants were then able to use Facebook on both the computer and the smart phone.
The last session of the training course was a great opportunity for participants to practice what they had learned under the guidance of the ICT staff. They had a full evening shift to run-through both how to create a Facebook account and how to use it, using the computer and smart phone. They also managed to share, like, and comment on information they found on the site. Overall, the training course was a success and the participants were very pleased to have learned how to navigate the world largest online social network.
As part of strengthening and promoting our internal online communication in safe ways, on August 15th the ICT project conducted a whole day training on email security, with around 25 participants attending the course.
On June 20th, 2014, there are around eleven communities activists from the urban poor communities participated in the social media training on Khmer Unicode which organized by ICT project at Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT). The aim of the training was to Enable Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) and Community Activists to use best communications technology to report promptly; safely and accurately. The training session started at 8:00 am and finish at 5:00 pm.
The first session, the trainer presented about the basic computer which is cover about the definition of computer, type of computer and elements of computer. The second session, was to focus on the Khmer Unicode typing, both theory and practice. There were a lot of interaction during the training session especially, during practice activity. The training session was part of the social media training series, and the participants will be back again next month.
