• Manage the methodological research to facilitate on-line participative collective action.

This activity will build upon existing experiments in MISTICA but adding a pedagogical dynamism to the communication and information access components. This activity will be conducted in association with the University of Toronto as a partner (as part of a Ph.D. dissertation on informal learning). The plan is to add (on a contract or an associate basis) a person, supported by an institution that has solid experience on conventional facilitation techniques, whose interest is conceptualize and experiment with facilitating on-line/on-going discussions. Due to the text-based nature of Internet interchange, an emphasis on graphic on-line interfaces supportive of on-line discussions will be put into place.

• Create the Isticómetro and the general framework for the observatory.

Create an index with a set of indicators (Isticómetro) as a tool to assess context, policies and actions related to ICTs and their social impacts from the national development perspective. The Isticómetro must extend beyond any current measurement tool based solely on technological criteria (number of access, bandwidth, etc.). As a consequence, the Isticómetro introduces some capacity to interpret the situation and put ICT in an evolutionary context within each country, in terms of development and social impact. The Isticómetro will necessarily introduce more qualitative considerations to the analytical measurement tool to enrich all considered quantitative techniques. Obviously, the goal is not to build THE international set of standards for ICT evaluation on a country basis, but rather, to start a process of collective reflection with progressive and pragmatic products susceptible to bring some light to the situation, by taking into consideration the cultural perspective of the region that frames public policies and actions in the field. The objective of the Isticómetro is modest in terms of the expected products, yet it is ambitious in terms of the process: it is intended to be conducted in such a way that the involved CSOs appropriate the subject and the method of study. As such, this will be an on-going process that builds upon what people know or not, what they want to assess and how they want to act in the policy arena. A framework for analysis and indicators will be available while new changes are continuously incorporated into the framework as a result of feedback and (re)actions from other participants. It is expected that the results will provide a provocative and refreshing vision of the ICT from the social point of view and indirectly provoke a deep reflection, beyond the MISTICA virtual community, on the sense of technology and the importance of development and social driven policies. The main product of the study would then to provide civil societies in LA&C (and from other regions) with a sound framework to interpret the complexity of ICT policies and be able to reach some level of incidence in national policies. The observation will not be made from scratch: a general framework will orient the observers on how to first conduct an inventory of the situation and then maintain an ICT watch.

• Animate the network of observers.

Prepare a series of on-line educational materials and resources (web-based frequently asked questions, Internet hot-lines, etc.) and facilitate regional face-to-face co-instruction and consolidation within the network of observers—if possible—in order to support the appropriation by the actors of the instrument (Isticómetro) and build up the dialectical capacity for using ICTs as a transformative tool for social development. Also, strongly support all creative and locally-based efforts to make action happen. Among some possible alternatives, we foresee regional observers supporting each other, making use of local media to open public debate at a local/national level, supporting bottom-up local strategies to implement ICT in the development agenda, advise local CSOs about how to properly implement ICTs in their social agendas, support local government (i.e. municipalities) to make good use and take advantage of ICTs in their plans, etc.

• Orient a collective debate to reach a consensus about the creation of an alternative vision of the role of ICT for social positive impact and development.

Prepare, discuss and disseminate basic discussion papers that will serve as common ground to articulate an alternative vision for the use of ICTs in the region. Streamline ACCESO’s "public policies" on-line publication papers¹. Create a new open and non-moderated discussion group that will collectively prepare, in a short period of time, a document to be validated by MISTICA and that will guide further discussions in the VC about action-research and ICT policy scenarios in the region.

• Provide presentation and training materials to support the advocacy of the previous activity (not budgeted in this proposal).

Provide co-ordination staff with adequate training to improve the capacity of facilitating on-line synchronous and asynchronous discussions. Discussions will be open with project associates to have this important activity fit in the project while contributing in a balanced negotiation to the third party projects. APC is launching an IDRC-funded project called "ICT Policy Monitor" which represents a unique opportunity for synergy. FLACSO is taking steps to formulate a project of creation of a master degree on ICT Policies with which strong and mutually beneficial links can be established.