News / Carbo participates in UNESCO Workshop in Africa

4/15/2009

Toni Carbo, Professor at the iSchool, served as a principal for the United Nation’s Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) Training Workshop on Information Ethics and e-Government in Sub-Saharan Africa.  The workshop was convened in February 2009 in Magaliesburg, South Africa and was hosted as part of UNESCO’s e-government and information ethics initiative in Africa which aims to significantly improve the quantity and quality of government services provided using new technology.

The workshop involved representatives from more than 13 African countries and leading practitioners in the area of e-Government.  The group reviewed the context and challenges facing the development of e-Government efforts in the diverse African countries and called for an in-depth analysis of what type of approach should be utilized to implement and promote e-Government programs – local, national, or a combination of the two.  The workshop participants discussed how to deal with challenges such as poverty, lack of infrastructure, lack of access, exclusion of some groups, and the need for greater transparency and accountability.  They agreed that the central purpose of e-Government efforts should be to support development goals and objectives, to promote inclusivity, and to emphasize utilizing existing technologies and cultural traditions.  Future efforts of this group should focus on effective use of social networking tools, collaborations and partnerships among governments and international institutions, and promoting e-Government programs through public awareness campaigns.

Toni Carbo began her work in the information field in 1962 and she has extensive experience with information service producers and users (both libraries and database producers).  Her teaching and research interests focus on Information Ethics and Information Policy, especially concerning e-government in the U.S., the European Union, and Sub-Saharan Africa.  She earned her A.B. from Brown University and her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Drexel University.  Carbo is the director of the Institute for Information Ethics and Policy at the iSchool.  She is also the director of the IMLS-funded ALA Spectrum Doctoral Fellows program, in collaboration with ALA and nine other LIS programs. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the Institute of Information Scientists (IIS), and the Special Libraries Association (SLA).  Dr. Carbo served as president of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIST) and the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE).  From 1986-2002, Carbo was the Dean of the iSchool and currently holds a joint appointment with the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs.

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