ABSTRACT
The Ethiopian Computer and Information Technology Association (EthCITA) is a professional membership organization that promotes the use and expansion of Information Technology in general and computers in particular among the Ethiopian community residing both at home and abroad for a constructive and goal-oriented interaction.
MEMBERSHIP
EthCITA is a professional membership organization with voting individual members and non- voting institutional members. The Association plans to publish a bi-annual newsletter and holds an annual meeting of all its members and interested parties. The topics of this meeting shall include discussions on electronic networking among Ethiopian professionals, expanding e-mail and INTERNET access to educational and research institutions in Ethiopia.
There is no membership dues for regular individual class of members. However, donations from individual members is encouraged. The amount of dues for the institutional members are determined by the Board of Directors of the Association.
CHARTER
EthCITA is a non-profit organization that was established for academic, educational, charitable and scientific purposes among which are:
1) Coordinating and promoting the effort of computer networking among Ethiopians living at home and abroad by formulating a short-term and long term networking strategy.
2) Expanding electronic mail (E-Mail) and full blown INTERNET access to the Ethiopian community.
3) Initiating, coordinating and executing projects to collect electronic and mechanical equipment and personal computers (including their peripheral accessories like modem, printers, software etc.) to be sent to public educational and research institutions in Ethiopia.
4) Carrying out regularly updated survey of Ethiopic software and distribute the compiled results to individual users, educational, cultural and research institutions both at home and abroad.
5) Formulating, appending, editing and following-up the International Standard Organization's (ISO) code provisions for the Ethiopian script. Pay particular attention to the inclusion and expansion of letters of all major and minor Ethiopian languages.
6) Promoting and coordinating the development of Ethiopic software in previously overlooked areas.
7) Coordinating the expansion and qualitative growth of the Ethiopian E-mail Distribution Network. Arranging possible back-up sites for a smooth operation of the network and soliciting fund towards the expenses for its operation and expansion.
8) Archiving important documents, publications and abstracts of literary, scientific and social research reports in a ftp (file transfer protocol) site. This envisages eventually setting up a national bibliography database for Ethiopia.
9) Organizing annual or biannual symposiums and conferences to discuss issues pertaining to the expansion of the usage of information technology and Ethiopic software among Ethiopians.
10) Publishing a newsletter that features relevant activities of EthCITA and other allied non-profit and professional organizations.
ACTIVITIES OF EthCITA
1) EthCITA is formed by a group of Ethiopians who want to make a good use of the unique and efficient networking opportunity the INTERNET provides. Besides the good number of Ethiopians who already have an access to the INTERNET, there still are a lot of Ethiopians who, for one reason or the other, haven't so far been the direct beneficiaries of this medium. EthCITA plans to sentisize the community about the unique opportunity the INTERNET provides and investigate ways and means of bringing the INTERNET to this segment of the Ethiopian community. Setting local computer-based bulletin board systems (BBS) run by volunteers at major US cities where a sizable Ethiopian community lives is one of the options. EthCITA will look into ways of finding funding sources for this venture.
2) EthCITA convenes an annual meeting of its members and interested parties on specific topics of interest. The Association also organizes workshops and symposia whenever possible.
3) EthCITA publishes a bi-annual Newsletter that will feature the activities of the society. The Newsletter will also cover recent developments in Information Technology and computer software and hardware as they pertain to Ethiopic software development and networking among Ethiopians.