VOIP (Voice over IP)
Hardware and software that enables people to use the internet as the transmission medium for telephone calls. For users who have free, or fixed-price internet access, internet telephony software provides free telephone calls anywhere in the world.

VSAT (Very small aperture terminal)
A small (under 2 metre diameter dish) antenna and satellite receiver which is primarily for data transmissions.

Web casting
There has been a financial and legal barrier to the use of the broadcast media - radio and television - by community organisations. States have either been unwilling to allow small-scale broadcasting, or they have sought to restrict its content by insisting that all broadcasts are licensed. The web effectively removes this barrier. Where an organisation can arrange sufficient capacity to provide programs over the Internet, broadcasts can be streamed live, or 'web cast', via the Internet. Those who cannot afford the servers required for streaming can also make shorter programmes available as files to download an played locally. Either way, the Internet provides a means to circumvent the traditional barriers to media access. The test for those groups promoting Internet rights may be that in the near future governments may seek to license the streaming of programmes in order to control their content. In some states licenses are already required for the provision of Internet services. Licensing streaming would be an extension of this principle.

Web portal (see portal)

Women's Empowerment
A 'bottom-up' process of transforming gender power relations, through individuals or groups developing awareness of women's subordination and building their capacity to challenge it.
[Gender and Development: Terms and Concepts
Hazel Reeves and Sally Baden, Bridge 2000.
]
Related resources:
»Gender and Development: Terms and Concepts

Women, Men, Gender
The categories of "women", "men" and "gender" are all necessary for gender mainstreaming and development planning. In certain sectors projects targeted solely to women or men continue to play an important role in improving well being and facilitating development. Thus, gender mainstreaming activities do not preclude targeted initiatives focused on either women or men.

WSIS
World Summit on the Information Society

WTO
World Trade Organisation.