<P>Fellow Members,</P>
<P>This is Shahid Uddin Akbar from Bangladesh and involved in ICT for
Development activities. I like to introduce myself as a volunteer and
activist digital divide gaps in developing countries.</P>
<P>I worked as Coordinator of ICT for Development Program Bangladesh
(ICTDPB), a local voluntary initiative to promote Telecenter in Bangladesh.
I also work for KATALYST (known as SwissContact funded by SDC, SIDA and
DFID) as ICT Consultant in the Rural ICT Project. </P>
<P>It was a great opportunity for me to involved in the process
when Andy was planning to launch the Telecenter Working Group during
the PrepCom Meeting held at Tunis and feeling excited that Andy did the
great job to bring all the concerns under a same roof.</P>
<P>Let’s share our ideas and design a global strategy towards establishing
Telecenter at every village in developing countries. Bringing the issue to
the global forum and getting some tangible output should be the goal of this
forum.</P>
<P>To make the group more vibrant and uncover the innovative ideas to the
local communities, specific organizational structure at country and regional
level may be designed to involve the local communities who are the victim of
Digital Divide. Let’s bring them in the loop and bridge the gap. Any
proposal will be welcomed.</P>
<P>Best regards,</P>
<P>Md Shahid Uddin Akbar</P>
<P>Coordinator</P>
<P>ICT for Development Program Bangladesh (ICTDPB)</P>
<P>Dhaka, Bangladesh</P><FONT size=2>
<P></FONT><A href="http://www.ictdpb.org/"><FONT
size=3>www.ictdpb.org</FONT></A></P>
<P>Email : <A href="mailto:unisys@bdonline.com">unisys@bdonline.com</A> or
<A href="mailto:shahid_ictdpb@yahoo.com">shahid_ictdpb@yahoo.com</A></P>
<P></P>