Dear friends,
Welcome to the first issue of 2009. We have a fabulous year ahead of us, we look forward to new ICT4D opportunities and further collaboration with SPIDER friends. We would like to encourage our network to share your experiences with us for the coming newsletters and the SPIDER website. The text should be proofread and not exceed one A 4 and we reserve the right to edit the content.

The SPIDER team wishes you a productive 2009.

Magda Berhe Johnson, SPIDER

Disclaimer
The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SPIDER.

V-Learning: Voice based Learning

The 'V- Learning' project is an innovative solution for people to access web based learning content through telephones in developing countries where Internet access is limited for several reasons. The main objective of the 'V- Learning' project is to give access to the Internet based learning content through basic voice communication.

Joining the SPIDER Network

SPIDER welcomes Luleå University of Technology as the latest member to the partner university network. A partner university primarily become a resource center for SPIDER's activities, and as such also provided with the opportunity to be engaged and remunerated for its efforts in academic and project activities carried out under the auspice of SPIDER.

SPIDER Center News

From January 2009, Annelie Östlund has replaced Fatima Santala as project assistant at SPIDER.  Fatima will now be working full time at The Department of Computer and System Sciences (DSV) at KTH-SU. We are immensely grateful for the fantastic work she has done for SPIDER since its establishment in 2004.

Junior ICT Expert wanted for mHealth field support

In collaboration with The Millennium Villages and Ericsson, SPIDER and AIESEC are now looking for a Junior ICT Expert to join the Millennium Villages Cluster in rural Uganda in order to support the launch of mHealth activities.

Karolinska and SPIDER jointly organize a workshop on sustainable e-Health projects

Karolinska University Hospital, Karolinska Institute and Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine/WHO Collaborating Centre for Telemedicine and e-health, with the support from SPIDER, invites you to the workshop "E-health in low resource settings: The path to sustainability" that will be held on March 30-31 2009, in Stockholm Sweden.

The first SPIDER long-term project has been finalized

The first SPIDER funded long-term project was finalized in the end of 2008. The project in Sri Lanka, aiming at implementing a national center for research, and development and training on Wireless Adhoc Sensor Networks (WASNs) has stretched over a three-year period.  

Closed applications for Junior ICT Experts in Rwanda and Mozambique

Students with an academic background in either Multimedia or Network and System Administration had the opportunity to apply for Junior ICT Expert placements in Rwanda and Mozambique. SPIDER, in collaboration with AIESEC, are now in the review process of the many applications received. No more applications are accepted.

New report from the M4D workshop on collaboration in East Africa

SPIDER co-sponsored a workshop on collaboration in East Africa held at the M4D 2008 conference in Karlstad, December 2008. A report presenting the results and outcomes at the M4D 2008 conference have been written by Johan Hellström and Ali Ndiwalana. It is now available here.