Association for Progressive Communications


The Association for Progressive Communications 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 peace, human rights, protection of the environment, and sustainability. Pioneering the use of ICTs for civil society, especially in developing countries, APC were often the first providers of Internet in their member countries.
APC is a worldwide network of social activists who use the internet to make the world a better place. APC is both a network and an organisation. APC members are groups working in their own countries to advance the same mission as APC. APC has more than 59 members, mostly in Asia, Africa and Latina America, from five continents. This is a challenge and a strength, because members are at the two extremes of internet development and in between.

History

Background and creation

APC was founded in 1990 by:
The activists working with United Nations–sponsored data management NGO 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, more popularly known as the Earth Summit. 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..
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. APC actively participate in UN initiatives such as Millennium Development Goals. 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.
The APC Women's Networking Support Programme 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.
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 : "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 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 programme, and trained 100 technology enthusiasts in Africa to set up community wireless networks.

2004–2008

, a 16 days of activism against gender-based violence, 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
The Dominican government chooses APC's Gender Evaluation Methodology 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. 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:
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:

North America

Gender evaluation methodology (GEM)

The Gender Evaluation Methodology is an evaluation methodology that integrates a gender analysis into evaluations of initiatives that use information and communications technologies. 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 worldwide, 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:
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ActionApps offer a low cost solution for content sharing that both increases the functionality of not-for-profit and NGO websites, and facilitates the creation of portals sites so as to improve the visibility of civil society information. They are driven by free software. 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. The criteria and 2014 and 2007 winners are published.

Awards to people

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.