International Virtual Conference from Peru invites KO's participation

The International Virtual Forum entitled "ICT in rural areas: Pending challenges" is taking place on-line from March 17 to April 1 2003. Everyone is invited to participate in the various on-line discussion forums to share their thoughts, stories, best practices and lessons learned. Keewaytinook Okimakanak staff produced a paper entitled "Socio-Economic Impact of ICT in Remote First Nations" for Session 6 scheduled for March 31 to April 1 containing some of the work being done in the KO First Nations. Do register and share your stories within this international environment.

"The development and use of ICTs can hopefully help different cultures to become better integrated, improve government throughout the world and lead to greater respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. Nonetheless, although there have already been numerous national and international initiatives taken to reduce the digital divide in many different parts of the world, these need to be properly analyzed in order to ensure that the necessary resources and investment are made available for future projects in such a way as to benefit "global" society.

New or emergent technologies have presented a challenge not only for regulating bodies and the State in general but also for society as whole. Technology advances by leaps and bounds, setting us ever more demanding challenges.

It is for these reasons that OSIPTEL (the Peruvian Telecommunications Regulatory Agency), together with REGULATEL, (the Latin American Forum of Regulatory Agencies) have decided to organize this International Virtual Forum: "ICT's in rural areas: The pending challenges" creating a space for dialog between the business sector, public institutions, the academic world and the civil society in general, in order to share experiences and opportunities for contributing to the economic and social development of ICT's in rural areas of developing countries."