Association for Progressive Communications
[4][5] Collaboration between APC and the United Nations began in 1992, in preparation for the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), more popularly known as the Earth Summit.
Official declarations promote ICT as a way of enhancing NGO participation in global media policy making.
[13] APC made a significant impact in Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, and the Caribbean by providing civil society organisations with email and e-information using the Fidonet gateways.
[14] Fidonet protocol was used because it is store-and-forward technology enabling people to compose and read email offline which is very important in the countries with the pour infrastructure (phone lines, electrical supply and hardware).
A powerful statement from the meeting was published as The Holy Family Communiqué from African Electronic Communicators.
[15] A legal threat to freedom of information online came from the company Biwater and involved APC member LabourNet, April 1997.
The new vision statement drafted at an APC council meeting held in Piriapolis, Uruguay hosted by the Third World Institute (ITeM): "APC works to achieve a world in which all people have easy, equal and affordable access to the creative potential of the internet to improve their lives and create more democratic and egalitarian societies.".
[18] In May 2001, APC and partners started work on building a portal which collects training materials related to ICT for social change.
This portal, named Itrain Online, is an entry point for finding the best computer training resources on the web for the social change and development.
The access to new information and communication technologies affected rural men and women and improved agricultural production.
[28] The other activities included replication of the community wireless training developed in Africa in Latin America and the Caribbean, forming an eighteen-country network connecting indigenous communities, rural backwaters and impulsing university networking courses,[29] the first Feminist Tech Exchange, training people from 680 organisations in technology for social change and ICT policy from 2004-2008,[30] organizing a press conference in Tunisia to address the host government's suppression of free speech in the wake of the second World Summit on the Information Society,[31] launching GenderIT.org.
[42] The eleventh face-to-face APC council meeting is held on Panglao Island in the Philippines, hosted by the Foundation for Media Alternatives.
Over one hundred communications activists also attend a Networking and Learning Forum[43] to strategise for an open, fair and sustainable internet.
The second strategic plan was released defining five priorities for 2013–2016: securing and defending internet access and rights, fostering good internet governance, strengthening use and development of transformative technology, ending technology-based violence against women and girls and strengthening APC community networks.
It is an evaluation tool for determining whether ICTs are really improving or worsening women’s lives and gender relations, as well as for promoting positive change at the individual, institutional, community and broader social levels.
[51] GISWatch editions by year: ActionApps offer a low cost solution for content sharing that both increases the functionality of not-for-profit and NGO websites, and facilitates the creation of portals sites so as to improve the visibility of civil society information.
