Bridge Builders : African Experience with Information and Communication Technology.

Bridge-Builders : African Experiences with Information and Communication Technology brings good news from that continent. This volume tells sixteen remarkable stories-first person accounts of how information and communication technologies (ICT) have been successfully introduced into institutions for the benefit of scientists and engineers in sub-Saharan Africa. The projects described by the authors are case studies that focus on the lessons learned in designing and implementing projects dealing with scientific and technological information (STI) and that examine the impacts these projects have had. For the most part, these are not big projects in terms of funding. They do, however, demonstrate just how much can be accomplished through leadership, dedication, and determination. The authors are very honest in discussing the problems they faced and the lessons they learned. By providing this systematic examination of the lessons learned by these project mangers, the National Research Council's Advisory Panel on Planning for STI Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa hopes to encourage the donor community and many others in the STI community to engage in strategic planning forest and to strengthen the design and management of scientific and technical systems. The Advisory Panel expects this volume to contribute to the development of national STI projects that are based on a firm and educated comprehension of what is already in place and to catalyze necessary linkages between STI institutions and actors so that national STI networks can be developed to sup