The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) is an international network of organizations that was founded in 1990 to provide

communication Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inqui ...

infrastructure Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and priv ...

, including

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, p ...

-based applications, to groups and individuals who work for

peace Peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony in the absence of hostility and violence. In a social sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (such as war) and freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups. ...

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

, protection of the environment, and

sustainability Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and have varied in the literature and over time. The concept of sustainability can be used to guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable livi ...

. Pioneering the use of ICTs for

civil society Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere.Institute for Global Communications (IGC),

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

, USA *

GreenNet GreenNet is a not-for-profit Internet service provider based in London, England. It was established in 1985 "as an effective and cheap way for environmental activists to communicate". In 1987 the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust gave GreenNet a g ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, United Kingdom * IBASE,

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

, Brazil * Nicarao,

Managua ) , settlement_type = Capital city , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Nicar ...

, Nicaragua * Pegasus Networks, Byron Bay, Australia *

Web Networks Web Networks is a non-profit organisation based in Toronto, Canada that provides website services to socially committed organizations. It was conceived at a 1986 "Friends of the Earth" conference in Ottawa, Ontario and founded by Mike Jensen and K ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

, Canada * NordNet,

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

The activists working with United Nations–sponsored data management NGO (IDOC) create a network of like-minded organisations working with information and alternative media. At this point they communicated mainly using fax and regular mail. People physically travelled around transporting and sharing databases of information and software on disks. In 1988, on the verge of APC creation, Mitra Ardron describes the central characteristic of the future APC user, present operations and the history of APC precedents: PeaceNet, EcoNet and GreenNet. He also expresses a common commitment to global communication available to everyone.

UN status

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 The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the Rio Conference or the Earth Summit (Portuguese: ECO92), was a major United Nations conference held in Rio de Janeiro from June 3 to June 14, 1992. Earth Su ...

. As APC had the only international, civil society communications network in existence at that time, the UNCED secretariat published their information in APC conferences. They had no other way of distributing information so economically and so effectively. (The UN itself began distributing information by electronic means many years later). Email links are set up between Cuba and APC networks. They call the Cuban servers three times a day to deliver and collect email. The cooperation continues over the years. APC received consultative status to the UN with the several quadrennial reports submitted over the years. APC also cooperated with

United Nations Development Programme The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...

. APC actively participate in UN initiatives such as

Millennium Development Goals The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were eight international development goals for the year 2015 that had been established following the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000, following the adoption of the United Nations Millenn ...

. The studies of violence against women and ICTs in ten countries and how legislation or lack of it hinders or helps women were conducted and published as a part of promoting gender equality and empowering women. The APC Women's Networking Support Programme (APC - WNSP) co-coordinated a women's network to bring an NGO perspective to the UN Beijing +5 review. Official declarations promote ICT as a way of enhancing NGO participation in global media policy making. It also gives recommendations for women's portrayal, decision making and advocacy in media industry.

Late 1990s

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. 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). APC's African networks faced with the strong competition from commercial providers, held an Africa Strategy Development Meeting from February 8–11, 1997 in Johannesburg, South Africa. The meeting attended 34 APC members and partner networks from all over Africa. The program areas, action framework and plan as well as women's program were discussed. A powerful statement from the meeting was published as The Holy Family Communiqué from African Electronic Communicators. A legal threat to freedom of information online came from the company Biwater and involved APC member LabourNet, April 1997. Thirteen APC members mirrored the threatened content.

2000–2003

2000 was a turning point for APC. The new vision statement drafted at an APC council meeting held in Piriapolis, Uruguay hosted by the Third World Institute (

ITeM Item may refer to: Organizations * ''Instituto del Tercer Mundo'' (ITeM), the Third World Institute * ITEM club, an economic forecasting group based in the United Kingdom Newspapers * ''The Item'', an American independent, morning newspaper ...

): "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.". 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 first APC Internet Rights Charter was published in three languages: English, French and Spanish. The themes: internet access for all, freedom of expression and association, access to knowledge, shared learning and creation, privacy, governance and rights were addressed. APC started Gender, Agriculture and Rural Development in the Information Society (GenARDIS) in 2002. This project was launched to provide small grants for the agricultural initiatives by women. The access to new information and communication technologies affected rural men and women and improved agricultural production. The ICT policy handbook for beginners was published in 2003 together with a tri-lingual ICT policy training for civil society curriculum which includes a special section on advocacy for positive policy change. APC stimulated multi-stakeholder dialogue as part of the Catalysing Access to ICTs in Africa (CATIA) programme, and trained 100 technology enthusiasts in Africa to set up community wireless networks.

2004–2008

Take Back The Tech! Take Back The Tech is a collaborative global campaign that connects the issue of violence against women and information and communications technology (ICT). It aims to raise awareness on the way violence against women is occurring on ICT platform ...

, a 16 days of activism against gender-based violence (25 Nov - 10 Dec), started in 2006. This campaign engages information and communication technology in helping end gender-based violence. APC joined Internet Governance Forum for the first time in 2008. A statement to IGF open consultations was submitted before the third IGF supporting regional IGF meetings and giving suggestions about themes and content of the meeting in Hyderabad. The first edition of Global Information Society Watch was published, focused on citizen participation in ICT policy processes in the wake of the World Summit on the Information Society. These reports are accessible yearly and are a joint initiative with the Humanist Institute for Development Cooperation Hivos. 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, the first Feminist Tech Exchange, training people from 680 organisations in technology for social change and ICT policy from 2004-2008, 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, launching GenderIT.org.

2009–2012 strategic plan and progress

APC priorities for 2009–2012 period were: advocate for affordable internet for all, make technology work to sustain environment, use emerging technology for social change, build collaborative open online space, secure and defend internet rights and improve internet and other governance. The strategic plan was realized by * launching Internet Rights and Human Rights project, * starting research on the real lived experiences of women around the internet and sexuality, * publishing

Global Information Society Watch The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) is an international network of organizations that was founded in 1990 to provide communication infrastructure, including Internet-based applications, to groups and individuals who work for peac ...

: 2010 addressed the pressing issues of ICTs and

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

and e-waste, a dedicated edition on a defence of human rights and women's rights workers working online, GISWatch 2012 focused on the Internet and corruption, as well as 2 updates to GISWatch 2011: Update 1 and Update II, * designing a manual called "Communicating research for influence: Strategies and challenges for bringing about change" based on their success stories and challenges in communicating research for influence, * developing a practical guide to sustainable IT. It offers a detailed, "hands-on" introduction to thinking about sustainable computing holistically; starting with the choices you make when buying technology, through to the software and peripherals you use, how you store and work with information, manage your security, save power, and maintain and dispose of your old hardware. The Dominican government chooses APC's Gender Evaluation Methodology (GEM) as a tool to design and evaluate their ICT policies. The eleventh face-to-face APC council meeting is held on Panglao Island in the Philippines, hosted by the

Foundation for Media Alternatives The 'Foundation for Media Alternatives'' (FMA) is as a non-government organization formed in 1986. Since its founding, FMA has "''sought to enhance the popularization and social marketing of development-oriented issues and campaigns through media-r ...

. Over one hundred communications activists also attend a Networking and Learning Forum to strategise for an open, fair and sustainable internet.

2013–2016 strategic plan and progress

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. The realization of this plan included the following: *

was published on communication rights ten years after the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). * APC co-organised the second (2014) and third (2015) editions of the African School on Internet Governance, with graduates from more than 15 African countries.

Structure

APC is governed by the board of directors which include an executive director, a chair, a vice-chair, a treasurer and any other officers elected by APC council. The executive officer is a past board member and all other officers are elected for a three-year term during APC council meeting. The council is made up of the two representatives from each member organization and it is a secondary governing body that meets every three years. Besides, electing the board officers, it also sets strategic priorities. APC board 2014–2016 was elected in Barcelona: * Julián Casabuenas, Colnodo, Colombia (Chair) * Valentina Pelizzer, OWPSEE, Bosnia-Herzegovina (Vice-chair) * Liz Probert, GreenNet, United Kingdom (Secretary) * Osama Manzar, Digital Empowerment Foundation, India (Treasurer) * John Dada, Fantsuam Foundation, Nigeria * Lillian Nalwoga, CIPESA, Uganda * Chim Manavy, Open Institute, Cambodia * Anriette Esterhuysen, APC, South Africa

Membership

North America

* Alternatives, Action and Communication Network for International Development, Canada * Institute for Global Communications (IGC), United States of America * LaborNet, United States of America * LaNeta, Mexico *

, Canada * May First/People Link, United States of America

Latin America and the Caribbean

* CEPES, Peru * Colnodo, Colombia * Fundación Escuela Latinoamericana de Redes (EsLaRed), Venezuela * Instituto del Tercer Mundo (ITeM), Uruguay * NODO TAU, Argentina * RITS (Information Network for the Third Sector), Brazil * Networks & Development Foundation - FUNREDES, Dominican Republic * Wamani, Argentina * Núcleo de Pesquisas, Estudos e Formação (Nupef), Brazil * ONG Derechos Digitales, Chile * Sulá Batsú, Costa Rica * Asociación Trinidad Comunicación, Cultura y Desarrollo, Paraguay

Europe

* BlueLink Information Network, Bulgaria *

Computer Aid International Computer Aid International is a not-for-profit organisation active in the field of Information and Communication Technologies for Development. A registered charity, Computer Aid was founded in 1997 to bridge the digital divide by providing refurb ...

, United Kingdom *

, United Kingdom * Green Spider, Hungary * Metamorphosis Foundation, Macedonia * OWPSEE, Bosnia-Herzegovina * Pangea.org, Spain * StrawberryNet, Romania *

ZaMirNet ZaMirNET (ForPeaceNET) is a Croatia-based non-governmental organisation working in the field of ICT (information and communication technology). It describes itself as "a citizen association (not-for-profit organization) dedicated toward civil socie ...

, Croatia

Africa

* ArabDev, Egypt * Fantsuam Foundation, Nigeria *

Arid Lands Information Network Arid Lands Information Network (ALIN) is a Kenya-based non-governmental organisation that seeks to exchange ideas and experiences among "grassroots change agents". It sees its goal as enabling such grassroot change agents to learn from one another, ...

(East Africa), Kenya * Community Education Computer Society (CECS), South Africa *

SANGONeT SANGONeT is a South African organisation, whose acronym stands for The Southern African NGO Network. It is a civil society organisation with a focus on ICT, which was founded in 1987, and has a history closely linked to the social and political ch ...

, South Africa * Ungana-Afrika, South Africa * Women'sNet, South Africa * WOUGNET - Women of Uganda Network, Uganda * AZUR Développement, Republic of the Congo * Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet), Kenya * Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA), Uganda

Asia-Pacific

Bytes for All.org The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable uni ...

, South Asia *

EngageMedia EngageMedia is a not-for-profit Video for Change organization that was co-founded by Anna Helme and Andrew Lowenthal in March 2005. The organisation focuses on creating social change through the distribution of human rights and environmental vide ...

, Australia, Indonesia *

(FMA), Philippines * JCA-NET, Japan * JCafe, Japan *

Korean Progressive Network Center Korean Progressive Network Center ( ko, 진보네트워크센터), also known as Jinbonet ( ko, 진보넷) is a nine-year-old organization in Seoul, South Korea. Jinbonet is a network that provides ICT services (web hosting, mailing list, webmail) ...

(Jinbonet), South Korea * Open Institute of Cambodia, Cambodia * WomensHub, Philippines * Bangladesh Friendship Education Society (BFES) - Bangladesh * Voices for Interactive Choice and Empowerment (VOICE), Bangladesh * Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF), India * Society for Promotion of Alternative Computing and Employment (SPACE), India

Actions

Gender evaluation methodology (GEM)

The Gender Evaluation Methodology is an evaluation methodology that integrates a

gender analysis Gender analysis is a type of socio-economic analysis that uncovers how gender relations affect a development problem. The aim may just be to show that gender relations will probably affect the solution, or to show how they will affect the solution a ...

into evaluations of initiatives that use information and communications technologies (ICTs) for social change. 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. It was first developed in 2002 and was tried and tested by thirty community-based organisations. Since then hundreds of people have become involved in GEM's development including people who developed the tool, who train in how to use GEM, who are adapting GEM to increase its applicability to rural ICT4D projects, telecentres, software localisation and ICT policy advocacy and who are now offering GEM evaluations on a consultancy basis. The GEM manual was written in English and has been translated into French, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and Arabic). GEM was developed by the APC Women's Rights Programme (APC WRP

Global Information Society Watch

Global Information Society Watch is an annual report co-produced by APC and Hivos, a Dutch organization for development, which looks at the progress being made in creating an inclusive

information society An information society is a society where the usage, creation, distribution, manipulation and integration of information is a significant activity. Its main drivers are information and communication technologies, which have resulted in rapid inf ...

worldwide (particularly in implementing World Summit on the Information Society goals), encourages critical debate and strengthens networking and advocacy for a just, inclusive information society. The country reports are easy to read and offer a quick insight into a country situation. Contributors are primarily from civil society organisations active in ICT issues in their countries. Themes covered include environment and ICTs, human rights and the internet and internet infrastructure. There is a Giswatch book website. GISWatch editions by year: *GIS Watch 2019 - Artificial intelligence: human rights, social justice and development *GISWatch 2018 - Community networks * GISWatch 2017 - National and Regional Internet Governance Forum Initiatives (NRIs) * GISWatch 2017 Special Issue - Internet governance from the edges - National and regional IGFs in their own words * GISWatch 2017 Special Issue - Unshackling expression - A study on laws criminalising expression online in Asia * GISWatch 2016 - Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Internet * GISWatch 2015 - Sexual Rights and the Internet * GISWatch 2014 - Communications surveillance in the digital age * GISWatch 2013 - Women's rights, gender and ICTs * GISWatch 2012 - The internet and corruption * GISWatch 2011 - Internet rights and democratisation * GISWatch 2010 - ICTs and Environmental Sustainability * GISWatch 2009 - Access to Online Information and Knowledge * GISWatch 2008 - Access to Infrastructure * GISWatch 2007 - Participation

ActionApps

ActionApps offer a low cost solution for content sharing that both increases the functionality of

not-for-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

and NGO

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and W ...

s, and facilitates the creation of

portal Portal often refers to: *Portal (architecture), an opening in a wall of a building, gate or fortification, or the extremities (ends) of a tunnel Portal may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Gaming * ''Portal'' (series), two video games ...

s sites so as to improve the visibility of

civil society Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere.free software Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, n ...

. ActionApps were first developed by APC and released to the free and open source software community. Development continues strongly in South America.

Evaluations, awards and criticism

FLOSS

APC is awarding Chris Nicol free/libre open source software award (FLOSS or FOSS). The criteria and 2014 and 2007 winners are published.

Awards to people

* Karen Banks and the APC Women's Networking Support Programme are awarded the Anita Borg Prize for Social Impact (2004). * Valeria Betancourt, Communications and Information Policy Programme manager, wins LACNIC's Outstanding Achievement Award, honouring internet leaders in the LAC region * APC's Executive Director Anriette Esterhuysen and Finance Manager Karen Banks are inducted into the ISOC's Internet Hall of Fame (2013) * APC's Executive Director Anriette Esterhuysen and APC were awarded the

Electronic Frontier Foundation The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. The foundation was formed on 10 July 1990 by John Gilmore, John Perry Barlow and Mitch Kapor to promote Internet ...

's 2015 Pioneer Award.

Awards for programs

* GISWatch wins WSIS Project Prize from the ITU * Take Back the Tech! (South Africa) won GEM Award 2014 in category 6: Efforts to Reduce Threats Online and Building Women's Confidence and Security in the Use of ICTs.

2013 DDoS Attack

Beginning at 10.15 BST on Thursday 1 August 2013 GreenNet, and consequently APC, suffered an extensive DDoS attack. The attack was later described as a "DNS reflection attack" also known as a spoofed attack Several sources linked the attack to the Zimbabwe Elections, held a day earlier. GreenNet's services were not fully operational again until 10.30 BST on Thursday 7 August. On the 9th of August there was a second attack, which, while affecting some systems, allowed GreenNet to discover the site which was being targeted. In October 2013, the target was revealed to be the site of British investigative reporter Andrew Jennings.

References

External links

The Association for Progressive Communications
(English, French, Spanish and Portuguese)
International Development Research Centre
{{DEFAULTSORT:Association For Progressive Communications Organizations established in 1990 Information technology organizations Privacy organizations

History

Background and creation