consultancy

During a one week visit to the Philippines, Mathy Vanbuel assisted the Local Government Academy (LGA) of the Philippines in their process of evolution towards the implementation of learning, knowledge brokering/connection, knowledge exchange, and innovation technologies in their capacity building strategy. The visit consisted of a three day intensive training workshop on e-moderation, content conversion and videoconferencing, which took place at the LGA Training Centre in Los Banos. A visit to the LGA Resource Centre in Region 7 in Cebu concluded this week.

The Government of Japan and the World Bank are equal partners in the ‘Tokyo Development Learning Center (TDLC) Project', founded in 2004 with as its main objectives: (i) to establish TDLC as an important part of Global Development Learning Network (GDLN) in the East Asia and Pacific (EAP) region; (ii) to provide access to Japanese knowledge and expertise in development, to Asia and internationally; and (iii) to contribute to the development and sustainability of GDLN in EAP by taking a leadership role in programs, operations, or technology.

The current phase of the Project ends in June 2010. In order to document the major achievements, outcomes and impact of the TDLC Project, to ensure the accountability of the Project to its stakeholders, and to provide a sound basis for the future of TDLC, an external and independent assessment is put in place, which focuses on key features and functions of TDLC. The assessment tries to answer to what degree TDLC Project has achieved its current goals, to what extent it has operated effectively and efficiently, and what its impact has been until today. Mathy Vanbuel, ATiT is based in Tokyo for most of April to participate in the assessment.

ATiT are leading a training course in Sierra Leone from 22 to 24 June on the new interactive web service that has been designed for the Sierra Leone Investment and Export Promotion Agency (SLIEPA). Built using Drupal, this site allows experts to register their company and activities and make themselves available for parterships inside and outside the country. It also allows SLIEPA staff to provide information, business intelligence and connections to help local businesses grow and to contribute to the economic growth of Sierra Leone.

The Second Virtual Dialogue in the Women's Dialogue series about women in political leadership took place on Wednesday 25 February involving more than 120 people in the participating sites in Jordan, Kenya, Ghana and Lithuania.This two hour dialogue featured an interview with Former President of Ireland (1990 - 1997) and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (1997 - 2002) Mary Robinson, followed by a discussion with a worldwide audience on closing the political gender gap and on ways to empower and prepare the next generation of women leaders. It attracted a wide variety of participants including several senior ranking ministerial representatives and policymakers. This included recently appointed Ghanaian Ministers,  Hon. Akua Sena Dansua , Minister of Women and Children’s Affairs and Hon. Juliana Azuma-Mensah Minister of Tourism.

Recommendations from this and the other Virtual Dialogues in the series will contribute to The International Colloquium for Women's Empowerment, Leadership Development, International Peace & Security Conference to be held on March 7 ­ 8 in Monrovia, Liberia. More information about the series is available from the Virtual Dialogues site http://www.womensdialogue.org. More information about the Colloquium is available from the Colloquium site http://www.womenscolloquium.org

Details of the Second Dialogue in the Women's Dialogue series about women in political leadership have been been announced. This two hour dialogue, taking place on February 25, 2009, will feature an interview with Former President of Ireland (1990 - 1997) and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (1997 - 2002) Mary Robinson, followed by a discussion with a worldwide audience on closing the political gender gap and on ways to empower and prepare the next generation of women leaders. It will link through videoconference participating live audiences in Jordan, Kenya, Lithuania and Ghana. Recommendations from this and the other Virtual Dialogues in the series will feed into a major international conference hosted by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf - The International Colloquium for Women's Empowerment, Leadership Development, International Peace & Security Conference to be held on March 7 ­ 8 in Monrovia, Liberia.More information about the series is available from the Virtual Dialogues site http://www.womensdialogue.org. More information about the Colloquium is available from the Colloquium site http://www.womenscolloquium.org.

Watch the live stream on Wednesday 25 February 2009 at 11.30 - 13.30 EST US Eastern Time (check your time) on http://vcg01.worldbank.org/vc/. Please note that the conference will only appear at the top as soon as the conference starts. Meanwhile you can test your streaming by visiting one of the recorded public conferences mentioned on that same page.

The agenda for the Online Educa Berlin conference which takes place 3 - 5 December 2008 in the InterContinental Hotel, Berlin is now available online. It includes lots of new features and a real emphasis on networking as well as plenty of opportunities for discussion on topics like how well prepared trainers and academics are to deal with Gen Y learners, what the implications are of moving to Moodle and the impact online learning has on cultural identity.

The agenda also includes a variety of pre-conference events taking place on 3 December, ranging from hands-on workshops on practical topics like Quality Enhancement Processes and Building an Open Global Learning Infrastructure to topics like Designing Informal Learning and Technology Assisted Learning and Training for Defence, Security and Emergency Services. Visit the conference web site to find out more about Online Educa Berlin, the largest international event dedicated to eLearning.

For the third year in a row, Mathy Vanbuel was invited to serve as a judge in the Brandon Hall Excellence in Learning Awards this year. Judging for these awards is now completed and the winners will be announced later in September. These well known awards have been in existance for 14 years now and recognise the best in innovative learning content, technology, and initiatives in workplace learning. For more information about these Awards, see http://www.brandon-hall.com/awards/awards.shtml

The latest book by Jef Staes is now available in English. Called 'My Organisation is a Jungle', this is the latest publication in Jef's Red Monkey Innovation Management series. In it, Jef tackles questions like How do you create an environment in which new ideas can survive and thrive? How do you increase the innovative power of your organisation, its teams and its employees? What is strangling creative entrepreneurship in our company?

As a leading expert in the fields of learning and innovation management, Jef analyses the way in which people resist and even obstruct change processes in his usual highly attractive and provocative manner. You can order Jef's latest book here
http://www.eoi.be/english/index.html

The Web-Sat DVB S2 development project has now been concluded successfully. ATiT staff supported Web-Sat in the management of this project which begun in June 2006, testing and piloting with the service have been on-going since July 2007 and were completed at the end of February 2008.

As a result of this development project, the forward link has been upgraded to the DVB-S2 standard, leading to an immediate increase in capacity and the potential for future increases using the ACM (Advanced Code Modulation) option. Suitable DVB-S2 data receive cards have been sourced and satellite trials performed successfully to date using 8PSK modulation. The return link has also been upgraded with the development of a new transmit card. The new transmit card employs a digital signal processor (DSP) and provides greater flexibility in terms of the supported modulation schemes (BPSK, QPSK, 8PSK etc..). It has been designed so that software/firmware upgrades can be easily applied when new features are required.

One of the key advantages of the development is that the new transmit card’s firmware can be upgraded remotely in a matter of seconds to add new features such as SCPC (single carrier per channel) mode.

These developments have been integrated into the overall service chain to include all the necessary software services necessary to operate a full end-to-end service. Further information, contact info@web-sat.com

Mathy Vanbuel described his experience in the provision of educational services to remote schools in Europe in a keynote presentation given on 15th May during an International Conference held in Athens. This conference called "Bridging the Digital Divide in Rural Communities; Practical Solutions and Policies'' brought together project leaders of several pioneering projects many of which are using the latest developments in satellite technology to provide solutions for remote and rural school communities in Europe and elsewhere. Organised in the Ellinogermaniki School in Pallini, this event brought together policy makers, academics and field practitioners from Europe and beyond who share an interest in promoting the use of ICT by rural citizens of all ages. See the Conference web site for more information.