WSF 2004 participants highly ICT-enabled

MUMBAI: A survey conducted by Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) across all the stalls of World Social Forum reveals that the social sector is not only highly aware about IT, communication, Internet and mobile but have also been using ICT tools for their office and administrative jobs, for the efficiency of their core activities. And more importantly for training their stakeholders with ICT skills.

The survey also revealed that the ratio of the computer installation and the number of staff in a typical NGO is 40:60. Almost 50 percent of the organizations have LAN in place and 100 percent use email as one of the prime medium of communication and exchange of information.

It is however understood, according to DEF, the surveyors, that non-availability of standardized fonts in local languages are becoming a major problem for organizations using ICT tools in local language.

"It is commendable to know from the survey that even the NGOs working for the upliftment of deaf blind and just blind, are using ICT tools to publish materials in Braille. But, what they are looking forward to, is if somebody could provide software which could publish materials in Braille in local languages," said founder director of DEF, Osama Manzar.

Interestingly, many organizations working in the remotest of the country are using Internet for fundraising, for information dissemination, for membership registration and for contact management. According the survey, the biggest concern about the effective penetration of ICT tools in the social sector is the "lack of paying capacity."

It is believed, according to the survey, that almost 33 percent of the organizations spelled the desire for particular kind of software, and they literally asked DEF during the survey if they could help them in "finding right vendor for the desired solution." DEF is going to analyze this survey in detail on various parameters and come out the detailed report by February 15, 2004.

(CyberMedia News Service)