This
was the fourth time that Microsoft has arranged a forum in Moscow to showcase
its support for the voluntary sector. A venue was provided to enable NGOs and
IT firms to discuss the use of technology by the former. Similar events took
place in the other regions.

The
following themes were discussed: Microsoft’s corporate responsibility strategy,
an educational initiative called Your
Course, aimed at improving computer literacy amongst Russians, programmes
for supporting and developing NGOs, the potential for collaboration between
NGOs and IT companies, access to IT for people with disabilities, internet
security, development trends in Runet (Russian language internet) use of social
networks for providing information to the public, seeking partners and so
forth.

‘We
are sitting with NGO representatives and discussing practical issues connected
with the use of IT in their work. We regard such meetings as an important part
of our programme for providing technological and information support to the
voluntary sector’, observed Inessa Grikurova, who heads Microsoft’s strategic
programmes in Russia. In 2012 The Agency for Social Information (ASI) joined in
for the first time, helping to organise a panel discussion on the role of IT in
the development of the voluntary sector. Taking part were Ms Grikurova, Elena
Topoleva, director of ASI, Aleksandr Lavrenov, head of the WWF’s IT department
in Russia, Irina Ganzha, head of Project
Citizen 2.0 and Aleksandr Gordienko, executive director of the charity, Krylya (Wings). These NGOs make active
use of IT.

‘NGO
Day has an educational character aimed at promoting the use of IT,
contemplating practical issues in the area, and discussing formats and tools
that NGOs can utilise’, explained ASI projects head Elena Temicheva, who
chaired the panel discussion. She said that NGOs just like bodies in other
sectors needed to computerise their accounting to lighten the bookkeeping
burden and to reorganise and advance their projects. It was difficult for an
organisation to function effectively without up to date technology.

‘Our
co-operation with representatives of the voluntary sector takes a number of
different forms and NGO Day is one of them. It provides an opportunity for companies
to exchange information about IT, other resources that Microsoft has for the
voluntary sector and programmes which are being implemented in co-operation
with the NGOs, as well as to discuss problems which NGOs encounter in their
work and possible IT solutions’, observed Ms Grikurova. During the forum an
announcement was made about the donation by Microsoft of security software to
the charity Podari Zhizn (Give Life).

http://www.asi.org.ru/asi3%5Crws_asi.nsf/va_WebPages/5213A6973395F2BF442579D10043DC03Rus