Radio 1812 is an initiative of December 18, the International Advocacy and Resource Centre on the Human Rights of Migrant Workers. It is a global event dedicated to International Migrants Day (December 18th), producing and broadcasting programmes from radios worldwide.

When it was reported in mid-May 2007 that a Uruguayan woman was being put on trial for having an abortion, many people paid little notice. After all, abortion has been classified as a crime in the country’s criminal code since 1938. Others, however, were outraged by the news and turned to information and communication technologies (ICTs) as a tool for organising, protesting, and putting the contradictions of a legal and sociocultural system that systematically violates women’s reproductive rights back on the political agenda: http://despenalizar.blogspot.com/.

As a contribution to the 2007 UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF), IGP has released a new paper showing how network neutrality can serve as a globally applicable principle that can guide Internet governance.

Several organizations have organized a dynamic coalition on ‘framework of principles for the Internet’ at UN- IGF 2007 seeking to explore the possibility of civil society taking the lead in collaboratively developing some overall normative principles for the Internet.

Adding to their long history of reports on the study of internet filtering, the OpenNet Initiative (ONI) has compiled, and released, a bulletin on the recent demonstrations in Burma and the Burmese government's shutdown of the internet there. The executive summary of "Pulling the Plug: A Technical Review of the Internet Shutdown in Burma" reveals the "the role of information technology, citizen journalists, and bloggers in Burma" today.

Technology giant IBM has pledged to grant universal and perpetual access to intellectual property that might be necessary to implement standards designed to make software interoperable. The company says that it will not assert any patent rights to its technologies featured in these standards. This means that an open-source developer will not have to spend time getting licenses from IBM for those software which come under this clause. Some analysts hope that this measure by IBM will encourage other organisations like Sun Microsystems, Microsoft etc to adopt similar moves.

IBM is set to launch a multimedia browser which makes audio and video content accessible to the visually challenged. The application which was developed by a visually challenged employee will give visually challenged and partially-sighted people the same control over multimedia content that sighted people have using a mouse. The browser will be available later this year and should be free.

A meeting on Internet governance in Rio de Janeiro later this month will bring together participants from around the world.

The 2nd Meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) - a new form of global governance created after the World Summit on Information Society in which all stakeholders in the internet can participate - will be convened between 12-15 November 2007 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Researchers have developed a Braille 'tutor', which tackles many of the issues faced by new Braille learners in the developing world.