International Organizations and Projects

Institute for Connectivity in the Americas (ICA)[1]
- At the Quebec City Summit of the Americas in April 2001, leaders recognized the importance of promoting information and communication technology (ICT) to improve social and economic development, and committed themselves to narrowing the digital divide. The Institute for Connectivity in the Americas (ICA) was announced as Canada’s contribution to the Summit. ICA plays a unique and important role in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) by bringing together stakeholders from different sectors to implement strategic networks and scaled-up innovative technology initiatives. ICA has received approximately 400 proposals since its creation, and has responded to the region by supporting over 60 initiatives. ICA fulfills a critical role in the region by facilitating the coordination, collaboration and sharing of efforts across countries with a number of key projects.

Wireless Technologies for the Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (WiLAC)[2]
- WiLAC is a new information portal about Wireless Technologies for Development , designed to support those individuals, organizations, municipalities and businesses which are currently implementing community wireless connectivity projects, or those just about to start.Throughout Latin American and the Caribbean the WiLAC portal promotes information about design, implementation, development, replication, and use of the necessary components for a successful community wireless project that serves the community.

The Observatory for the Information Society in Latin America and the Caribbean (OSILAC)[3]
- The main objective of OSILAC is to centralize and harmonize data that serve to monitor the status of what is known as the "information society" in the Latin American and Caribbean region. The Observatory provides support for national statistical institutes in compiling indicators on information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the region and in employing the associated methodology.

Regional Action Plan for the information society (eLAC 2007)[4]
- eLAC 2007 is the Regional Action Plan for the information society, which was officially approved at the Regional Latin American and Carribean Preparatory Ministerial Conference for the World Summit on Information Society on June 10, 2005 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is based on constant dialogue and cooperation among all the Latin American and Caribbean countries, and leading to the adoption of a common policy agenda.

Continente Digital [5]
- The Economy of Knowledge Project in Latin America and the Caribbean (EC Project) is a two-year research program in which FLACSO-México will have full control over a fund sponsored by the International Development Research Center (IDRC). The aim of the program is to support research projects and knowledge-sharing activities that fill in existing learning gaps and generate inputs to formulate public policies promoting the Economic of Knowledge to the benefit of Latin American and Caribbean societies.

Regional Fund for Digital Innovation in the Latin America and Caribbean (FRIDA) [6]
- FRIDA Program (Regional Fund for Digital Innovation in the Latin America and Caribbean) is an initiative of LACNIC, Pan Americas/IDRC and ICA to promote the development of research in countries of the Latin America and the Caribbean region in the field of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).

Regional Dialogue on the Information Society (DIRSI) [7]
- DIRSI is a network of professionals and academic institutions that creates knowledge to support policymarking that promotes effective participation of poor and marginalized commnunities of Latin America and the Caribbean in the Information Society.

Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) [8]
- SciELO - Scientific Electronic Library Online is a model for cooperative electronic publishing of scientific journals on the Internet. Especially conceived to meet the scientific communication needs of developing countries, particularly Latin America and the Caribbean countries, it provides an efficient way to assure universal visibility and accessibility to their scientific literature, contributing to overcome the phenomena known as "lost science". In addition, the SciELO model comprises integrated procedures for the measurement of usage and impact of scientific journals.

Future Networks

Our Grid [10]
- OurGrid is a free-to-join peer-to-peer grid that has been in production since December 2004. Anyone can free and easily join it to gain access to large amounts of computational power and run parallel applications. This computational power is provided by the idle resources of all participants, and is shared in a way that makes those that contribute more get more when they need.

RedCLARA [11]
- The CLARA organization - Latin American Cooperation of Advanced Networks - will be responsible for the implementation and management of a network infrastructure that will interconnect the national academic networks of several Latin American countries. With several universities and research centers connected to RedCLARA -the CLARA network-, many projects that suffered with the lack of an adequate infrastructure to support communication and collaboration are now able to advance, like projects in the area of HEP (High Energy Physics), computational GRID, astronomy and atmospheric studies.

DIGITAL POVERTY, Latin American and Caribbean Perspectives [12]
- This book represents the first publication of the Regional Dialogue on the Information Society (DIRSI in Spanish), a regional network of leading researchers concerned with the creation and dissemination of knowledge that supports effective participation in the Information Society by the poor and marginalized communities in Latin American and the Caribbean. The chapters that follow reflect different studies undertaken by DIRSI members under the common theme of pro-poor, pro-market ICT policies. This theme seeks to support next-generation policy reforms that build on the achievements of market liberalization efforts but at the same time address the realities of what we call digital poverty a concept that seeks to grasp the multiple dimensions of inadequate levels of access to ICT services as well as the barriers to their productive use.