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e-STAS REPORT

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e-STAS THE EVENT

• 1. Executive Summary e-STAS
• 2. Program of Activities
• 3. Expected Results
• 4. Introduction and reason-to-be
• 5. The goals
• 6. e-STAS 2006 Report

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

e-STAS is a Symposium about the Technologies for the Social Action , with an international and multi-stakeholder nature, where all the agents implicated in the development and implementation of the ICT's are appointed to exchange their experiences and knowledge, in an aim to finish with the digital breach.

The aim of e-STAS is to promote, foster and adapt the use of ICT's for the social action .Magistral lectures about:

• 1. Infrastructures and low-cost tools
• 2. Services and contents
• 3. The ICT and the Objectives of the Millennium
• 4. NGO’s, Volunteers and ICT
• 5. Programmes of access and use of the ICT in groups / areas with the lesser chances for access

After its first edition, which took place last May 2006, e-STAS h as succeeded at becoming a National and International referent in the Social Action and ICT field. Attendance to e-STAS in 2006 reached more than 200 people, from which at least a 20% belonged to International entities.

e-STAS 2nd edition is being held from the 22th to the 23rd March 2007 . e-STAS is organized by the Cybervolunteers Foundation, it counts with the Local support of the Government of Andalusia and the International support of the Club of Rome.

Attendants range from entities to individuals, including Local Authorities, Companies, NGO's and Universities, and all of them are implied in the development and implementation of the ICT, by means of social projects.

Both the beneficiary population with the lesser chances of access to the Information Society, and volunteers, indirectly benefit from e-STAS, so that the promotion of the use of the New Technologies reaches NGO's and those groups with the higher risk of digital exclusion.

PROGRAM OF ACTIVITIES.

It is divided into two areas:

CONCEPT AREA

Goals to be achieved: Exchange and generation of ideas, innovation and projects to be implemented.

Main activities:

• 1. Lectures
• 2. Conference Panel
• 3. Round tables and discussions
• 4. Research, study and analysis
• 5. From the concept the project

BIRD & NETS AREA

Goals to be achieved: Creating a social network among the attendants, gathering and streghening a hard-working team of about 50 people.

Main activities:

• 1. Exchange between the entities who work in this area.
• 2. Social Network
• 3. Setting and discussion of a good practice code

EXPECTED RESULTS

• Attendance to the Symposium of about 250 people, from any kind of entities, and at least a 15 % of them working at an Internacional level.
• Edition of a good practise code manual, including every content from e-STAS lecturers, workshop directors and attendants.
• Keeping on setting a National and International guideline in the field of ICT and the Social Action, and reinforcement of their joint field of work.

Participation at e-STAS is a declaration to society of your compromise and will to eradicate the digital breach by betting for the innovative strategies related to the ICT’s and the social action.

The setting-in and carrying-out of e-STAS is to Cyber Volunteers our way to make true the resolutions taken at the WSIS, in a strategy of innovation for the ICT and the social action.

The launch and fulfilment of e-STAS is a result of materialization of the recommendations presented at the World Summit on the Information Society in a bet for the innovative strategies related to the ITC’s and the social action.

INTRODUCTION AND REASON-TO-BE

The Third Sector is a social and politically strategic sector. It is proved by the fact that if the whole sector would conform a sole nation it would represent the fifth economical power in the world. They base their organization in principles of solidarity, volunteering and democratic participation, to the point that the number of existing NGO’s in a country is one of the yardsticks that outlines democratic maturity.

On the other hand, the Information and the Communication Technologies (ICT’s) are the core of the new technological and, according to Castells, they constitute “the fundamental element to foster the productivity in the manufacturing process. ” The “digital breach”, that is, the unequal access to the ICT’s –access, manufacturing and consumption of hardware, software, contents, endogenous abilities- constitutes another weak flank in the developing strategies of the countries. The appropriateness of these technologies is the keystone, especially within a context of growing inequalities.

This is why the ICT’s represent an opportunity to the Third Sector. This opportunity can and must be led to foster volunteering and the benefits of the social action. As the sociologist Saskia Sassen, one the five top world authorities on the Information Society, says: “The New Technologies have the chance to accelerate the participation of the “underpowered” and generate transformations”. This is the reason why, its use acquires major importance inside the organization with the less resources, such as the NGO’s, and the less socially favoured groups, who are usually the beneficiaries of the programmes, projects and activities that the NGO’s carry out.

Therefore, it is urgent that the Third Sector quickly gets into the ICT’s train Urge, because of both, the qualitative increase if its activity, and the fact that the longer the present situation continues in time, the more difficult it will be, afterwards, to implement these methods and to make the best performance in accordance to the social target of its mission and projects. In order to make all this possible, it is essential to improve:

• The multi-stakeholder participation between the NGO’s, the Educative Community, the Enterprises, the Mass Media and the Authorities; in an aim to join efforts in the search of policies, tools and joint actions to foster the technological alphabetisation and the universal access to the Knowledge Society, especially among the population with the less chances for access.
• The volunteers play the role of promoting, developing and spreading agents of the ICT’s. There are thousands of volunteers who have been working in the development of the Internet, who have created many free access applications and software, who, day by day contribute to the cultural and linguistic diversity of the cyber space, and who, participate as trainers and promoters of the Information Society for a Shared Knowledge Society for everyone.
• To sum up, the Third Sector holds enough relevance, experience, knowledge and professionalism to implement the Goals of Development for the Millennium. This causes an enormous impact, in the human and social development, in general; and in the development of the information society, in particular. Consequently the Third Sector cannot afford to stay aside from the revolutionary process that working for the massive entrance of the ICT’s into society means, provided their essential contribution and the terrible risk and consequences of entering into the Knowledge Society, under unequal conditions.

THE GOALS

The aim of e-STAS is to promote, foster and adapt the use of ICT’s for the social action. The multi-stakeholder participation between NGO’s, Authorities, the Educative Community, the Mass Media and Companies, throughout a set of ideas, programmes and actions, as the main tool.To achieve its mission, e-STAS has the following non-exclusive goals:

• 1. To create a social awareness, to generate positive social and cultural attitudes towards the importance of the New Technologies for the development and advance of society.
• 2. To foster the adoption and use of the ICT for the social action, and in order to end with the digital breach from a multi-stake-holder point of view.
• 3. To exchange and promote any kind of programmes, projects and activities meaning to end with the digital breach, integrating the work of the volunteers towards the Knowledge Society.
• 4. To Debate about an adequate and responsible development of the contents, services, tools and access to the Information and Knowledge Society.
• 5. To Discuss, from different perspectives, about the barriers that impeach the knowledge and the use of the New Technologies, especially those of a physical, social and cultural nature. To become an Internationally and Multi-stakeholder referential Symposium about Social Action and the ICT.