Dear CANCHID and HI4DEV Colleagues:
The infoDev Initiative of the World Bank, and the Bellanet
Secretariat at IDRC in Ottawa collaborate on the infoDev Forum,
found at http://www.bellanet.org/infodev on the Bellanet website.
INFODEV-L is an online conference in information and communication
technology (ICT) in development. It was opened in November of 1996.
Bellanet and infoDev have just reached agreement on the first focused
online conference for INFODEV-L. It is to be in the area of Health
Informatic and will run for 8 weeks.
With both [log in to unmask] and [log in to unmask] treating the same
topic we will minimize confusion and duplication by (a) keeping the two
discussions seperate (with a minimum of cross postings) and post summary
reports of postings - to both lists - in a usable format. The HI4DEV list
is planned to have a life beyond the next 6-8 weeks and it targeted to be
the virtual work venue for Canadian collaboration around global health and
development initiatives involving information and communication
technologies (ICT). The INFODEV-L forum will go on to other issues.
Here is the invitation notice.
Posted by: Sam Lanfranco <[log in to unmask]> <[log in to unmask]>
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* NOTICE OF HEALTH INFORMATICS ONLINE FORUM *
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ELECTRONIC FORUM ON
HEALTH INFORMATICS IN DEVELOPMENT
-----------------
(An 8 week online forum)
located at
[log in to unmask]
Conducted by The Bellanet Secretariat in cooperation with
The InfoDev Initiative of the World Bank
If you are interested in the application of information and communication
technology (ICT) to the pursuit of health in development, this INFODEV-L
online forum on Health Informatics is for you!
Information and communication technologies are creating sets of tools, and
electronic venues (virtual workspaces), which hold important promise for
projects, programs and activities involving health in development.
International market forces are extending access and connectivity to the
far reaches of the globe. Major national, regional and international
initiatives, with support from international aid donor and development
agencies, have targeted appropriate access and connectivity in developing
countries. Access and connectivity will grow quickly in regions where
health regimes face a variety of problems.
The electronic `toolkit', appropriately applied, offers the promise of
sustained increases in the efficient and efficiency pursuit of health
objectives within development strategies.
The electronic venue, appropriately used, presents opportunities for
collaboration and participation, knowledge diffusion, sharing of lessons
learned, plus greater transparency and accountability across activities
and stakeholders.
Will health sector stakeholders be ready to face the challenges posed by
information and communication technologies?
ICT, and health informatics, have the dual potential for either improving
or complicating health issues in developing countries. There are risks
from the failure to make appropriate use of the new tools and venues.
There are risks from making inappropriate use of the new technologies.
There will be manifold indirect impacts on health and health strategies
from ICT use elsewhere in a society.
The central purpose of this online forum is to help health sector
stakeholders face the challenge of `making sense' of what ICT means for
what they do, how they work, how they are organized, and how they
collaborate with others.
This online forum on Health Informatics in Development will start as an
open forum with the issues and the tasks "spread out on the table" for
comment and discussion. It will not start with a set of pre-formatted
postings by experts.
Experts will be invited to comment in response to the postings.
Stakeholders whose views are rooted in the wisdom of their various
communities are invited to posst, comment and respond.
This forum is less about exchanging expert information than it is about
experts, communities, intermediate organizations and other stakeholders
`finding their way' in the emerging maze of new tools, and the
possibilities of the electronic venue.
The facilitators for the INFODEV-L forum will be responsible for
extracting key information (issues, questions, positions, lessons learned,
tacit knowledge) from the forum postings and reflecting it back in an
organized fashion. To do this the facilitators will make use of a
meta-framework being developed to assist in the analysis of activities
which (a) use tools from the ICT "tool kit", and (b) operate in the
electronic venue's "virtual workspace".
A brief version of the meta-framework will be available within the
conference, by email, and on web pages at
http://www.bellanet.org/partners/infodev.
The key objective of this INFODEV-L forum is to assist health sector
stakeholders involved with education, funding, policy, programming,
project implementation, research and evaluation, to refine their overview
and approaches to ICT for health in development.
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* HOW TO JOIN THE INFODEV-L ELECTRONIC FORUM *
**********************************************
INFODEV-L is an electronic mail Listserver (ListProc) Bellanet 's server.
> To participate all you need is access to electronic mail <
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
TO SUBSCRIBE sent email to> [log in to unmask]
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With a blank Subject line, in
a message (UPPER/lower case)
type one line which says> Subscribe INFODEV-L your_name
and send it.
> Listproc will capture your email address from the message <
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Then send your INFODEV-L postings to> [log in to unmask]
(UPPER or lower case will do)
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posted by Sam Lanfranco <[log in to unmask]> Feb 18, 1997
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