Research and Education
http://www.unescap.org/pdd/prs/ProjectActivities/Ongoing/Best%20practice/Improving%20ubp%20lives.pdf
Concern about the lives of the poor in the developing world continues to be a focus for a number of important organizations, including the United Nations’ Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. One area of particular interest has been improving the lives of those poor persons in urban areas, areas that are often overlooked by programs designed to alleviate the massive amounts of rural poverty. This recent publication takes a critical look at a number of case studies that are meant to provide a number of basic services through some rather innovative and forward-thinking partnerships. The case studies featured in this report include solid waste management in Bangladesh, community toilets in Indonesia, and providing water to poor communities in the Philippines. Each case study includes a bit of background material, material on the various partnerships created to implement each policy, and the potential ability to replicate each policy effectively in other settings. Overall, this 76-page report is well-thought out and researched, and may be of great interest to practitioners and academicians alike. [KMG]
The website www.senate.gov has been around for over a decade and during that time the site has gone through several incarnations and revisions. Most recently, the site was completely redesigned, and is worth several visits. Visitors to the site will definitely want to take a look through some of the primary areas accessible directly from the homepage, including “Senators”, “Reference”, and “Committees”. In addition to containing copious amounts of information about each senator and committee, the site also contains a complete floor schedule for the Senate, along with “This Week in Senate History”, which contains a brief historical narrative on events in the Senate’s distant (and not-so distant) past. The real treat here is the “Art & History” area, which allows visitors access to oral histories of the Senate and brief essays by Senate historian Richard A. Baker discussing the development of the Senate over the past two hundred or so years. [KMG]
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/features/africa/
Africa’s contributions to music around the world are numerous, ranging from the griots of West Africa that later wove their way into the musical idiom known as the “blues” to the influence of Ladysmith Black Mambazo on Paul Simon. This special site created by the BBC offers musical clips and information about musical instruments across this vast continent, albeit only a tantalizing introductory selection. First-time visitors to the site can select a geographical region of Africa to begin their musical exploration, and then proceed to learn about the various wind and percussion instruments within each region. Visitors should not neglect to listen to the raw sound of the iranzi, the belap (a type of thumb piano), or the bangwe. [KMG]
While a number of web-based initiatives in the sciences were quick to put their proverbial flag in the sand of the Internet, the humanities took a bit longer in adopting these new technologies. One of the leaders in this field has been the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities at the University of Virginia. Established in 1992, the Institute has created a number of research projects over its history, and many of these fine projects are available here for the consideration of the web-browsing public. Visitors will find interactive projects on the lives of the saints, Leonardo da Vinci’s treatise on painting, and a history of the circus in America. As one might suspect, all of this fine work has also resulted in a number of publications that deal with the process and challenges that are involved in creating such collaborative online projects. Visitors can also browse some of these valuable musings in their publications area. [KMG]
The Internet is certainly a vast and, at times, quite chaotic place. Fortunately, there are organizations such as the Internet Society which “provides leadership in addressing issues that confront the future of the Internet”. With over 20,000 individual members in over 180 countries, it has a broad range of members located in most corners of the world. Perhaps one of the most important areas of the site is the public policy area. Here, visitors can learn about the governance of the Internet and a host of topics, including access, e-commerce, and spam. Of course, for those emerging cyber law scholars or the generally curious, there is an “All About The Internet” section. Included in this section are links to important guides to Internet law and a number of relevant online research tools. [KMG]
Created in 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an alliance of 26 different countries from both sides of the Atlantic. With a mutual agenda, these countries have worked together on a wide array of ventures, including peacekeeping missions and monitoring terrorist activities. On their website, visitors can learn about their more recent work, as well as previous activities, such as their interventions in Bosnia and Pakistan. The site is well-organized, and provides easy access to NATO speeches, and a quick summary of their policy initiatives. Policy makers and academics will enjoy learning that the website contains archived issues of NATO Review, which is their in-house magazine, published four times a year. For those seeking a wide array of media coverage, the multimedia section of the site contains photo essays, audio archives of speeches, and video briefings. [KMG]
