5 Partners LIRNEasia will partner with two organizations that have a history of engaging with LIRNEasia (details below) and share similar values. 5.1 MIDO The Myanmar ICT for Development Organization (MIDO) is a Myanmar based, non governmental and non-profit organization. Its mission is to “Be a catalyst in using ICT; for sustainable and inclusive development; and social and political progress in Myanmar”. MIDO is linked with both international as well as local organizations. Their focus is to help people deploy ICTs as a tool to meet core development goals. As such, the core activities are based on providing seminars and capacity building initiatives on ICT awareness, mainly in rural and suburban areas and on relevant development research around Myanamr’s ICT sector. At presently, the organization has five divisions, of which two focus on core activities (Research and Programs) and three on non-core shared services. MIDO is headed by Nay Phone Latt (graduate from Yangon Technological University with civil engineering degree in 2004, cofounder of Myanmar Blogger Society in 2007, award winner of PEN Barbara Goldsmith Award and RFS’s Cyber Dissidents Award, former political prisoner, CEC Member of Myanmar Journalists Association (MJA), Chief Editor of ThanLwinAinMat Online Magazine (www.thanlwin.com) and is on the BOD in House of Media & Entertainment (HOME)) and is run by a committed and experienced board of directors, full time and part time employees and volunteers. MIDO also has an Advisory Board from various sectors that could extend and guide to achieve the vision set by MIDO. 5.2 Center for Internet Society (CIS) The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) is a non-profit research organization that works on policy issues relating to freedom of expression, privacy, accessibility for persons with disabilities, access to knowledge and IPR reform, and openness (including open government data, free/open source software, open standards, open access to scholarly literature, open educational resources, and open video), and engages in academic research on digital natives and digital humanities. Its mission is to critically engage with concerns of digital pluralism, public accountability and pedagogic practices, in the field of Internet and Society, with particular emphasis on South-South dialogues and exchange. Sunil Abraham, the Executive Director of the Bangalore based research organization was elected an Ashoka fellow in 1999 to 'explore the democratic potential of the Internet' and was also granted a Sarai FLOSS fellowship in 2003. Between June 2004 and June 2007, Sunil also managed the International Open Source Network, a project of United Nations Development Programme's Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme serving 42 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. On the proposed work pertaining ICT access for the less-than-abled, LIRNEasia will draw on the expertise of another CIS Staff member, Nirmita Narasimhan. As Policy Director at CIS, Nirmita works on policy research and advocacy related to IP reform and technology access for persons with disabilities. In December 2010, in recognition of her work, she was awarded the National Award for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities by the President of India. In a program spanning 30 months (ending in 2015), CIS has been working in collaboration with the Hans foundation to create a national resource kit of 14