The 5th School on Foundations of Electronic Governance will take place in Ulaanbaatar, Tanzania from 1 to 3 May 2007. The primary purpose of the UlaanBaatar School is to provide participants with a good understanding of Electronic Governance. Specifically, it will teach participants how to carry out strategic planning for electronic governance and develop both organizational and technical/technological structures that are essential for building electronic governance. The school also provides a medium for international and local experience sharing on e-government developement in general, and in particular within the framework of a Community of Practice, such as the UNeGov.net Initiative.

The 8th Network-Building Workshop on Electronic Governance in Developing Countries will take place in Kathmandu, Nepal on 12 February 2007. The aim of the Kathmandu Workshop is to bring together experts and practioners from government, industry, academia and civil society interested in the development and utilization of Electronic Governnace: plans, challenges and solutions, at both national and local levels. The role of research and international cooperation will be discussed.

The 4th School on Foundations of Electronic Governance will take place on Kathmandu, Nepal from 13 to 15 February, 2007. The primary purpose of the Kathmandu School is to provide participants with a good understanding of Electronic Governance. Specifically, it will teach participants how to carry out strategic planning for electronic governance and develop both organizational and technical/technological structures that are essential for building electronic governance. The school also provides a medium for international and local experience sharing on e-government developement in general, and in particular within the framework of a Community of Practice, such as the UNeGov.net Initiative.

In late January-May 2007 an ONLINE course entitled: Introduction to Geographic Information Systems using Free/Libre and Open Source software, is offered by University of Massachusetts Amherst, Center For Public Policy and Administration.

The objective of this course is to introduce students to the construction, manipulation, display and analysis of spatial information using open source Geographic Information System (GIS) technology. GIS is a core technology utilized in many areas of public administration and public policy, particularly at local levels of government but also at state, provincial or national levels. Many of the GIS applications utilized in this course will have a environmental management focus, but the material taught is often generic enough that students interested in the application of GIS in other fields of public administration could easily undertake them. In addition, there will be a required student project where students can implement a GIS in pursuit of their own interest area.

At the end of the course, students will possess a fundamental understanding of foundational theory vital to doing GIS-related work. The class utilizes Free/Libre and open source GIS software, which students can freely download on their own computers. Specifically, students will leave with a working knowledge of Quantum GIS (QGIS) and the GRASS extension to QGIS.

A more detailed (tentative) outline for the course can be found at: http://www.masspolicy.org/pdf/gis07_outline.pdf

Please contact Charlie Schweik at if you or colleagues of yours have an interest in possibly taking the course.

The 7th Network-Building Workshop on Electronic Governance in Developing Countries will take place in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia on 7th December 2006. The aim of the Ulaanbaatar Workshop is to bring together experts and practioners from government, industry, academia and civil society interested in the development and utilization of Electronic Governnace: plans, challenges and solutions, at both national and local levels. The role of research and international cooperation was also discussed.

The 6th Network-Building Workshop on Electronic Governance in Developing Countries took place in Abuja, Nigeria on 24th July 2006.

The 3rd School on Foundations of Electronic Governance took place on Abuja, Nigeria from 25 to 27 July, 2006. The primary purpose of the Abuja School was to provide participants with a good understanding of Electronic Governance. Specifically, it taught participants how to carry out strategic planning for electronic governance and develop both organizational and technical/technological structures that are essential for building electronic governance. The school also provided a medium for international and local experience sharing on e-government developement in general, and in particular within the framework of a Community of Practice, such as the UNeGov.net Initiative.