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The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is organizing a Partnership Pavilion to be located in the main official Summit perimeter area reserved for this purpose from the 15th to the 18th of November 05.
The purpose of the pavilion is to showcase the concrete activities of partners in the Connect the World Initiative aimed at "connecting the unconnected."
Egypt is taking part in ITU initiative " Partners to Connect the World" with three main initiatives PC for the Community, IT Clubs and Free Internet .
Egypt will have a stand in the Partnership Pavilion through which new initiatives will be launched like the Arab Info Mall, one of the projects initiated by Bibliotheca Alexandrina to provide access to the activities of non-governmental organizations and civil society organizations.
On the recommendations of the First Arab Reform conference held at Bibliotheca Alexandrina in March 2004, the Arab Info Mall was established to serve as a meeting point for Arab civil society and to enrich the civil society organization's knowledge of other organizations and their activities.
The Arab Info Mall is similar to a mall or center for non-governmental organizations and civil society organizations in a tri-lingual (Arabic, English, French) web portal. Each participating organization is presented as a kiosk inside the mall. It provides a web access point through which Egyptian and Arab NGOs present their activities and observe what others are doing, which allows them to actively participate in published reform activities and paves the way to creating stronger and more fruitful partnerships. The Arab Info Mall is seen as a tool of the Arab Reform Forum to further the cause of democracy, freedom and peace through support of civil society efforts towards reform and dialogue in the region.
The Arab Info Mall is designed to offer a decentralized mechanism whereby every entity in the Mall may add and update data in its kiosk, ensuring the information is current and dynamic.
Launched in April 2005, the website beta version www.arabinfomall.org
sheds light on the activities, projects and contact information of NGOs and CSOs, presented via a news bulletin.
The website features:
- Browsing of organizations according to country, theme, or alphabetically
- NGOs' and CSOs' activities, organizational structure, history, staff and members, successful projects and contact information
- A bulletin board for each NGO to publicize news and events and share reports, as well as a common bulletin board for the entire mall
- A comprehensive search engine
- Private and public discussion forums that provide an opportunity for interested individuals to exchange opinions
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