Informatici Senza Frontiere onlus

“The time has come to move beyond broad discussions of the “digital divide” – the gap in communications technology between rich and poor – to outlining a specific plan to give people access to the technologies they need and the education to use them effectively”. Kofi Annan At the end of 2005 a group of Italian managers working in the information technology sector decided to give an answer to this important message using their knowledge and tools to provide practical help to those who live in a situation of poverty and marginalization. For the founders and members of Informatici Senza Frontiere, having access to information and communication technologies represents an essential prerequisite for social and economic development. In almost ten years of activity, Informatici Senza Frontiere is grown and has now ten regional sections with more than 300 members, men and women, computer experts and not, who are contributing to the association goals, in Italy and in the developing countries. Given the characteristic of the information technology, today present in any field - from medicine to education, management of public affairs, agriculture - ISF often operates independently, but most of the time, together with other NGOs, Universities or associations. The fields of ISF activity are mainly three: training, development and disability. In the first field of formation, ISF sets up computer courses, in Italy and in the whole world, directed to people living marginalization and social disadvantage, in communities, seniors clubs, prisons and centres for migrants… The objective is to help people in situations of difficulty to acquire skills useful to integration and communication (elderly people, people with disabilities, migrants….) or, at another level, to develop skills useful in the labor market with E-citizens, ECDL or Cisco certifications. In this way, the knowledge of ICT becomes therefore an opportunity of employment, integration, communication and socialization. Even in Africa, the computer classrooms made in the Universities and the hospitals can allow an improvement of the quality of life, work and relationships. In the field of development, ISF has ten years of experience in computer projects in the developing countries. First, it sets up computer labs in Africa with the project “InformAfrica” and trains the trainers of tomorrow how to teach ICT. ISF is also partner of other NGOs in projects to computerize hospitals and public institutions, always using open source software like Open Hospital or Open Erp - Odoo. The first, Open Hospital, is an open source software for hospital management developed by ISF to help hospitals in developing countries to improve their functioning in daily management. Already used in 17 Hospital of Africa and two health centers for migrants In Italy, Open Hospital is one of the Champions in the World Summit on the Information Society Forum 2016 ITU (category: Health). The second, Open Erp - odoo, is an open-source Erp to manage any kind of process or business function (logistic, staff, billing, e-commerce, project cycle reports….), etc. Multilingual and multi-currency, it can be parameterized for each individual user. All in all, then, Informatici Senza Frontiere works in the field of disability. In this area, it is considered important and innovative so that the United Nations invited ISF to show its actions in Geneva during the World Summit on the Information Society Forum 2013 ITU, recognizing it as representative at European level of what ICT can do for disabilities. In 2014, the app “Paperboy”, created for visually impaired and blind people to audio-read newspapers and textual contents, was award finalist in the world 2014 ITU WSIS. I.S.A. – I Speak Again is a communicator specifically designed for people who cannot communicate but with their eyes. Even the basic version allows all users who have a PC and a webcam to use the software immediately. I.M.A. – I Move Again is an interface of I.S.A. for wheelchairs created for patients with serious motor disabilities. Through the eye tracking, which is the only movement of the pupil, it allows the possibility of an autonomous mobility to persons who cannot move and speak. Musical Instruments for Persons with Disabilities is another project to give back the pleasure of music playing to those who cannot play anymore as result of a disability.