In the photo, John Vassallo, European Affairs Vice President of Microsoft and Mirta Michilli, General Director of the Fondazione Mondo Digitale, meet on February 12th.
According to the estimates of the Network Wizards, over 28 years (1981-2008), the number of Internet hosts increased from 213 to 600 million. However, notwithstanding the efforts put into action by a vast network of organisations, the “global” nature of Internet is definitely limited to certain parts of the globe. In fact, the number of people who have been able to enjoy the benefits of ICT progress are not many more than a billion. This means that at least five times as many people are completely excluded.
The map shows the number of Internet hosts per 1000 residents.
The Unlimited Potential Community Technology Skill Program isMicrosoft’s new challenge: reach another billion people by 2015 through new strategies and alliances, starting from local communities and identifying the population that is most fragile, most a risk of exclusion.
This strategy has renewed Microsoft’s collaboration with the Fondazione Mondo Digitale that has received a 50,000 Dollar Donation to implement training activities dedicated to immigrants in the City of Rome. This is a strategic area with over 400,000 foreign residents from other parts of the world.
The Fondazione Mondo Digitale will implement linguistic and digital literacy courses custom tailored to the specific needs of these new citizens as well as cater to the needs of those immigrants who require crash courses and help with social insertion, such as asylum seekers and refugees.
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