Center for Civil Society International ([email protected])
Fri, 22 Aug 1997 18:02:12 -0700 (PDT)
Russian Civic Networking Program
Friends and Partners, with support from the Ford Foundation and other
interested organizations, announces a program to help develop civic
networking in Russia. Three to four (3-4) communities will be chosen on
the basis of competitive application and will be provided with equipment,
travel funding for an initial planning/strategy conference in the US, and
funding for basic operating and salary expenses for one year, with a
second year of funding dependent upon a mid- term performance appraisal.
This is a cooperative Russia-U.S. planning and demonstration project to
promote development and wide-spread availability of advanced
telecommunications technologies and civic networking to enhance the
delivery of social services and generally serve public interests; to
promote access to government information and increase civic participation;
and to support the advancement of an advanced nation-wide
telecommunications and information infrastructure in Russia.
Each civic network will carry the full content of the larger Friends and
Partners project locally and its content will be mirrored at the various
Friends and Partners locations in other parts of the world. In addition to
the local content developed for local purposes (and, of course, published
in the Russian language) each participating site will also publish some
material in the English language which will be of interest to the global
community. The goal is to help demonstrate how technologies can be used to
effect partnerships with individuals and organizations in other parts of
the world.
Through this project Friends and Partners hopes to help communities
develop their own information services and software for constructing
interactive bulletin board systems, email listservers, interactive chat
sessions, etc. The community networks will provide software which will
allow access to basic Internet service such as email, World Wide Web,
telnet, ftp, etc., but will also make possible the easy construction of a
WWW accessible version of the local information and communications
network.
Each application must represent the joint submission of a broad consortia
of organizations in the local community and including representation of
and close partnership between government organizations, non-government
organizations, educational institutions, health care providers, religious
organizations, commercial organizations, telecommunications providers,
social service agencies, public safety offices, etc. The application must
be submitted by a representative, responsible organization which may be a
local or regional government, a non-profit organization, educational
institution, or other non-profit entity. This organization assumes legal
and fiduciary responsibility for all received funds and equipment. Since
funding for this program is being provided by other sponsor organizations,
recipients will be subject to additional terms and conditions which will
be provided at the time of award.
Grant recipients under this program will be required to provide matching
funds for the total project costs. The RCNP will provide up to fifty
percent (50%) of the total project costs unless extraordinary
circumstances warrant a grant of up to seventy-five percent (75%). A
project will not be considered grantable unless the applicant can document
a capacity both to supply matching funds and to sustain a project beyond a
period of the award. Cash matching and in-kind matching are equally
desirable. Suggested areas of matching include telecommunications access,
partial salary support, supply of additional public access computers, etc.
It is strongly recommended that at least two individuals be devoted
full-time to the project. Salaries for these positions can be funded from
the grant.
Each of the three to four proposals selected for initial participation will
be provided with the following.
1) Two UNIX servers which will provide for user accounts, web servers,
email, dial in access, etc. This will also include necessary back up
equipment, power conditioners and basic telecommunications equipment to
handle 8-16 incoming telephone connections.
2) Two computers to be used as public access machines (with the
understanding that the community will cost share additional equipment)
3) One work station with appropriate peripheral equipment (scanner, etc.) to
function as a public publishing station.
4) Funding to cover travel expenses for 2-3 individuals per site for a two
week planning/strategy conference in the U.S. working with Russian and
American community networking activists.
5) An additional funding installment to help cover local
salary, operating and travel expenditures associated with the first year of
the grant.
A mid-grant performance appraisal will be used to determine eligibility for
a second year of funding. Emphasis of the second year of the grant will be
establishing a local funding mechanism for long term sustainability of the
civic network.
Deadline: Applications must be received, in Russian and English,
at the Friends and Partners Russia office on September 15, 1997.
A complete project description and full application guidelines (in
English and Russian) are available on-line at the Russian Civic
Networking Web site at:
http://www.friends-partners.org/civnet/
http://alice.ibpm.serpukhov.su/civnet/
ADDRESSES
Friends and Partners, Russia, IBPhM
Prospekt Nauku 5 Pushchino, Moscow Region
Russia 142292
Phone: (0967) 73-06-11
Fax: (095) 923-36-02
email: [email protected]
For further information, please contact:
Natasha Bulashova, President
Friends and Partners, Russia
telephone: (0967) 73-0611
fax: (095) 923-3602
email: [email protected]
Greg Cole, Director
Center for International Networking Initiatives
The University of Tennessee
Phone: (423) 974-7277
Fax: (423) 974-8022
email: [email protected]
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