ICT Experiences

High Speed Internet Finally Switched On in Kampala

noreply@blogger.com (John Kibuuka) — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 06:24:00 +0000

High data rate internet access has finally come to Kampala. Seacom, which has laid the 17,000 km optical fibre on the ocean bed linking east and southern Africa via Europe and India has concluded its work this week. High speed internet has now been delivered at the different points of presence.

The 1,28 Terabytes per second (Tb/s) link with the capability to maintain two million phone calls simultaneously is expected to reduce the cost of Internet connection by more than 80 per cent much lower than satellite connection currently used in the country.

The market price of one megabyte per second of broadband has been averaging $2500-$5,000 (about sh5m - sh10m) in East Africa. SEACOM’s initial offer to Internet service providers (ISPs) will be at $400 (Shs800, 000). It is expected that the ISPs will then provide it to the end users at least 75 per cent less.

Uganda, like its east african neighbours, has not fully enjoyed and exploited the benefits of the Internet. Much of this has been hampered by the low penetration of electricity throughout the country, fewer computers available and the low computer literacy levels. Hopefully with the advent of high speed Internet, the government will feel the urge to educate the population on the potential of this great infrastructure towards development.

KIFAD telecentre Introduce use of ICTs in its community

noreply@blogger.com (John Kibuuka) — Sat, 30 May 2009 17:51:00 +0000

Kiyita Family Alliance for Development (KIFAD), a community based non-profit organization in Nansana Town Council, Wakiso District Uganda operates an offline-driven telecentre with a focus on families infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. Noting a deficit of information and poverty among families in the Wakiso area, a few families came together to work to rid their community of these evils, thus the formation of KIFAD telecentre.

The telecentre is equipped with four computers with CDroms, a photocopier, digital camera and lots of paper content including books, brochures, posters, pamphlets. The telecentre is run by the programme manager who oversees all the activities undertaken and a group of volunteers who are always on hand to research for information beneficial to the families under the telecentre program.

How KIFAD telecentre Operates

The telecentre takes on an intermediary role in connecting HIV/AIDS support organizations with the people in the Wakiso community. These include;

AIDS Information Centre, specializing in HIV/AIDS counseling and testing, a service now available to the community every month free of charge.
Infectious Diseases institute, working with discordant couples care and HIV/AIDS counseling and testing.
Naphofanu, an umbrella group for people living with HIV/AIDS. These are offering training to mostly women to setup and run income generating activities, demystifying HIV/AIDS and promoting positive living.
Uganda redcross society. KIFAD telecentre being a member of this society in involved in practices like blood donation exercises to save lives. Red Cross has also offered to train members in providing first-aid treatment.
Mildmay, family Hope – are some of the organizations that are providing free HIV/AIDS care and treatment but albeit unknown to many HIV/AIDS patients.
Support to children of families affected with HIV/AIDS with education funding agencies.

Successes

KIFAD has given hope to so many people in the Wakiso community. From humble beginnings of a couple of families to a sizeable number of over 200 working together for development.
More people are getting are becoming aware of the dangers of HIV/AIDS and are more willing to undergo HIV/AIDS counseling and testing.
Several children and women run families have been equipped with business skills. There are some already producing very good products, which include; fruit jam, flour, operating a retail shop
More children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS are now attending school
Stigmatization has greatly reduced. HIV/AIDS carriers can now open come out to talk about their experiences.

Future

To use information communication technologies (ICTs) including mobile phones, computers, portable devices (PDAs) in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Using the freely available web 2.0 resources (blogs, wikis, social media) to tell story of living positively with HIV/AIDS online.
Have couples freely undergoing HIV/AIDS counseling and testing sessions together. At the moment, most men shun these sessions leaving them to only the women and children

For further reading,

An idea in offing on how to use ICTs in fighting HIV/AIDS

A donor's experience supporting one of KIFAD's HIV/AIDS projects

A volunteer's experience working with KIFAD

Submitted as an entry to the telecentre.org Blog Contest.

Know Your e-Customer

noreply@blogger.com (John Kibuuka) — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 02:36:00 +0000

If you plan on setting up a business online, you have to learn the tricks of attracting and keeping your web visitors. Nobody done it much better recently, than Barack Obama.

How Obama Won Using Digital and Social Media

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: election obama)

Sengerema Wifi photos

noreply@blogger.com (John Kibuuka) — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 07:39:00 +0000

Main node installed at the Sengerema telecentre. We setup a mesh network of ten clients using biquads/cantennas, linksys wrt54gl router and one omni.

This is the complete assembly with a biquad to re-inforce the link to one of the highest peers.

John Kibuuka working on getting one of the biquads squares to scale. Having to make sure that the squares had 90 deg angles.

For a more pictures on flickr:

Sebastian's ablum

John's album

Bernadette's youtube album

Sengerema WiFi Network Technical team Oct '08

noreply@blogger.com (John Kibuuka) — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 05:33:00 +0000

Down to a relaxing meal during the workshop. From the guy in checked shirt: Njili, Itwana Ernest, Dickson Kalembo, Sebastian, john (shaved head), Mark Farahani (in white)

Sengerema Wireless Community network up & Clicking!

noreply@blogger.com (John Kibuuka) — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 02:43:00 +0000

Community WiFi projects always get me excited, great anticipation on getting my hands as dirty as they can get normally ensues when I encounter one. This year, there has been great planning to get the Sengerema WiFi Community project up with an initial phase covering 10 priority clients, among which is; a centre for people with disabilities (deaf, lame, blind); government district offices, a teacher's resource centre, business centre, a private individual and vocational school.

Sengerema District is one of eight districts in the Mwanza Region of Tanzania. It is bordered to the north and east by Lake Victoria, to the south by the Geita District and to the southeast by the Misungwi District.

The week-long knowledge sharing technical workshop, more like a IT camp - though not at all related to camping but with all the hacking & geeky IT lessons in plenty - with a tight schedule running from 0830 in the morning till close to midnight every day.

The IICD sponsored event brought together different telecentre technical managers from all over tanzania plus Sebastian Buettrich from Copenhagen, John Kibuuka from Uganda and IICD representatives; Bernadette Huizinga and Miep Lenoir.

BLOG Action Day '08: Down with Poverty

noreply@blogger.com (John Kibuuka) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 07:56:00 +0000

Its Blog Action Day - that day where bloggers the world over, unite with a particular goal and this year, its 1-voice to fight the global epidermic: POVERTY!

Being a country greatly affected and devastated by poverty, the least I can offer all the suffering people including myself is a blog article about this phenomenon. To demystify poverty, from wikipedia;

Poverty is deprivation of common necessities that determine the quality of life, including food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water and may also include the deprivation of opportunities to learn, to obtain better employment to escape poverty, and/or to enjoy the respect of fellow citizens.

Maybe there is stuff you currently take for granted, especially as that described in the poverty definition.

Just to give you a clue to what community am living in... here a couple of pictures

Living in one of the communities in wakiso district, very close to Kampala city but yet very far from all the development and economic growth usually mentioned by the government.

Several families managed by a single parent, usually mother, live in dire poverty with little or nothing to live on daily.

Forget the "less-than-a-dollar-a-day"; this is much far less. The be real, a dollar would take her on for several days.
====

The living conditions could be better, even for these people. This is a grandmother taking care of her grand-daughter(s) after the son or daughter died from contracting the deadly HIV virus.

The grandmother, at such un-productive age with little, though in most cases, no savings at all, she is left with very young grand-children and all the responsibilities associated with their upbringing. From paying their food, school fees, health-care, clothing etc.
=====
I know you can help to get so many people out of poverty, in so many ways.

So very few children are able to attain basic education as these because they cannot have access to food, clean water, shelter or they are sick. Some children do have to hit the streets everyday just to raise an income not to study but because they have to help with the income back home.
================

With the years to come, when these children will be taking on the cause of fighting this great evil, maybe then, it will be not as widespread and rampant as now. But its in our time that we can begin the journey to eliminate this global disease.

So the question is: What are you doing to eliminate poverty in your home, town, country and the entire world?

If we are united against this evil, we sure will eliminate it one day. This day may not be 2015, maybe much later or less: it all comes down to you. Join the cause now and bring to the elimination of poverty within the limits of our time.

If you would want to support a local charity in my country...

Kiyita Family Alliance For Development (KIFAD)
P.O. Box 33995
Kampala, Uganda
East Africa
T: +256 772 586147

E: kifad_project@yahoo.com

Together, lets make poverty history!

Computer infected with a virus?

noreply@blogger.com (John Kibuuka) — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 16:31:00 +0000

Caught A Virus?

If you've let your guard down--or even if you haven't--it can be hard to tell if your PC is infected. Here's what to do if you suspect the worst.

Heard this one before? You must run antivirus software and keep it up to date or else your PC will get infected, you'll lose all your data, and you'll incur the wrath of every e-mail buddy you unknowingly infect because of your carelessness.

You know they're right. Yet for one reason or another, you're not running antivirus software, or you are but it's not up to date. Maybe you turned off your virus scanner because it conflicted with another program. Maybe you got tired of upgrading after you bought Norton Antivirus 2001, 2002, and 2003. Or maybe your annual subscription of virus definitions recently expired, and you've put off renewing.

It happens. It's nothing to be ashamed of. But chances are, either you're infected right now, as we speak, or you will be very soon.

For a few days in late January, the Netsky.p worm was infecting about 2,500 PCs a day. Meanwhile the MySQL bot infected approximately 100 systems a minute (albeit not necessarily desktop PCs). As David Perry, global director of education for security software provider Trend Micro, puts it, "an unprotected [Windows] computer will become owned by a bot within 14 minutes."

Today's viruses, worms, and so-called bots--which turn your PC into a zombie that does the hacker's bidding (such as mass-mailing spam)--aren't going to announce their presence. Real viruses aren't like the ones in Hollywood movies that melt down whole networks in seconds and destroy alien spacecraft. They operate in the background, quietly altering data, stealing private operations, or using your PC for their own illegal ends. This makes them hard to spot if you're not well protected.

Is Your PC "Owned?"

I should start by saying that not every system oddity is due to a virus, worm, or bot. Is your system slowing down? Is your hard drive filling up rapidly? Are programs crashing without warning? These symptoms are more likely caused by Windows, or badly written legitimate programs, rather than malware. After all, people who write malware want to hide their program's presence. People who write commercial software put icons all over your desktop. Who's going to work harder to go unnoticed?

Other indicators that may, in fact, indicate that there's nothing that you need to worry about, include:

* An automated e-mail telling you that you're sending out infected mail. E-mail viruses and worms typically come from faked addresses.
* A frantic note from a friend saying they've been infected, and therefore so have you. This is likely a hoax. It's especially suspicious if the note tells you the virus can't be detected but you can get rid of it by deleting one simple file. Don't be fooled--and don't delete that file.

I'm not saying that you should ignore such warnings. Copy the subject line or a snippet from the body of the e-mail and plug it into your favorite search engine to see if other people have received the same note. A security site may have already pegged it as a hoax.

Sniffing Out an Infection

There are signs that indicate that your PC is actually infected. A lot of network activity coming from your system (when you're not actually using Internet) can be a good indicator that something is amiss. A good software firewall, such as ZoneAlarm, will ask your permission before letting anything leave your PC, and will give you enough information to help you judge if the outgoing data is legitimate. By the way, the firewall that comes with Windows, even the improved version in XP Service Pack 2, lacks this capability.

To put a network status light in your system tray, follow these steps: In Windows XP, choose Start, Control Panel, Network Connections, right-click the network connection you want to monitor, choose Properties, check "Show icon in notification area when connected," and click OK.

If you're interested in being a PC detective, you can sniff around further for malware. By hitting Ctrl-Alt-Delete in Windows, you'll bring up the Task Manager, which will show you the various processes your system is running. Most, if not all, are legit, but if you see a file name that looks suspicious, type it into a search engine and find out what it is.

Want another place to look? In Windows XP, click Start, Run, type "services.msc" in the box, and press Enter. You'll see detailed descriptions of the services Windows is running. Something look weird? Check with your search engine.

Finally, you can do more detective work by selecting Start, Run, and typing "msconfig" in the box. With this tool you not only see the services running, but also the programs that your system is launching at startup. Again, check for anything weird.

If any of these tools won't run--or if your security software won't run--that in itself is a good sign your computer is infected. Some viruses intentionally disable such programs as a way to protect themselves.

What to Do Next

Once you're fairly sure your system is infected, don't panic. There are steps you can take to assess the damage, depending on your current level of protection.

* If you don't have any antivirus software on your system (shame on you), or if the software has stopped working, stay online and go for a free scan at one of several Web sites. There's McAfee FreeScan, Symantec Security Check, and Trend Micro's HouseCall. If one doesn't find anything, try two. In fact, running a free online virus scan is a good way to double-check the work of your own local antivirus program. When you're done, buy or download a real antivirus program.
* If you have antivirus software, but it isn't active, get offline, unplug wires-- whatever it takes to stop your computer from communicating via the Internet. Then, promptly perform a scan with the installed software.
* If nothing seems to be working, do more research on the Web. There are several online virus libraries where you can find out about known viruses. These sites often provide instructions for removing viruses--if manual removal is possible--or a free removal tool if it isn't. Check out GriSOFT's Virus Encyclopedia, Eset's Virus Descriptions, McAffee's Virus Glossary, Symantec's Virus Encyclopedia, or Trend Micro's Virus Encyclopedia.

A Microgram of Prevention

Assuming your system is now clean, you need to make sure it stays that way. Preventing a breach of your computer's security is far more effective than cleaning up the mess afterwards. Start with a good security program, such Trend Micro's PC-Cillin, which you can buy for $50.

Don't want to shell out any money? You can cobble together security through free downloads, such as AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition, ZoneAlarm (a personal firewall), and Ad-Aware SE (an antispyware tool).

Just make sure you keep all security software up to date. The bad guys constantly try out new ways to fool security programs. Any security tool without regular, easy (if not automatic) updates isn't worth your money or your time.

Speaking of updating, the same goes for Windows. Use Windows Update (it's right there on your Start Menu) to make sure you're getting all of the high priority updates. If you run Windows XP, make sure to get the Service Pack 2 update. To find out if you already have it, right-click My Computer, and select Properties. Under the General tab, under System, it should say "Service Pack 2."

Here are a few more pointers for a virus-free life:

* Be careful with e-mail. Set your e-mail software security settings to high. Don't open messages with generic-sounding subjects that don't apply specifically to you from people you don't know. Don't open an attachment unless you're expecting it.

* If you have broadband Internet access, such as DSL or cable, get a router, even if you only have one PC. A router adds an extra layer of protection because your PC is not connecting directly with the Internet.

* Check your Internet ports. These doorways between your computer and the Internet can be open, in which case your PC is very vulnerable; closed, but still somewhat vulnerable; or stealthed (or hidden), which is safest. Visit Gibson Research's Web site and run the free ShieldsUP test to see your ports' status. If some ports show up as closed--or worse yet, open--check your router's documentation to find out how to hide them.

Ganda Firefox finally comes to life!

noreply@blogger.com (John Kibuuka) — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 04:08:00 +0000

Makerere University, in collaboration with Rhodes University, Firefox Mozilla and
Translate.org team have translated Mozilla Firefox into Luganda. According to Wikipedia, "Luganda is a major language of Uganda, spoken by over three million people mainly in the Buganda region, which includes the Ugandan capital Kampala."

To join the growing number of Ugandans already using Ganda firefox, follow the steps below;

1. Check that your firefox is 3.0.1. If not upgrade from the mozilla site or if you are within Uganda, download from local servers here.

2. Navigate to the Open source software translation project page with a heading "kickstarting Firefox in Luganda" Read the short article and click on download to get the provisional language pack.

3. A window entitled Software Installation will be activated. An xpi file will appear within the window. Just click on INSTALL NOW.

4. You have now installed the Luganda add-on, but you will not be able to see the changes unless you install the language switcher. The language switcher will enable you to change between languages. Click here to download the Locale Switcher 2.1.

5. Re-start Firefox for all these changes to be seen.

6. Go to Tools > Languages > Ganda to start using your new Luganda version of Mozilla.

7. Incase you want to switch back to English, go to Tools > Languages > English

Now, welcome to Ganda firefox!

Don't forget to leave your impressions about this and any like these in the comments below ;)

Nigerian Email scams on the rise!

noreply@blogger.com (John Kibuuka) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:45:00 +0000

Nigerian email scams seem to be on the rise in East Africa lately. In a space of two weeks, two friends of mine have had their addresses either hacked or have been lured to reveal their email address login information to Nigerian fraudsters. These scams are so rampant with hotmail and yahoo mail users

Once a user's email address hacked, the fraudsters completely lock out the user in the process claiming the user's personal information. They then send out a uniform email to all the user's contacts. The email scam so familiar is;

I hope this message finds you in best of health. I had traveled to Nigeria for official purposes, Unfortunately for me all my money was stolen at the hotel where I lodged, I am so confused right now, I don't know what to do or where to go,I didn't bring my phone here, I have access to only emails, Please can you send me $3500 today so I can return home, As soon as I get home I would refund it immediately.Write me so I can let you know how to send it. Keep this to your self only please!!. Thanks

I wait to hear from you soon

Regard's
{victim's first name}

Great tips to follow to avoid Nigerian email scams

Do not click on any flashing signs in your inbox or on websites: Normally, these red flashy bars have words like "you have won a lottery of $50,000" or "Click to claim your prize" or "you are our 99,999th subscriber, click to claim $1,000,000" or "Your country is eligible! Click to Live and Work in the US"
These promises are not true: The purpose of the scam is to get money out of your bank account, not to put money into it.
Never provide your email address username and password plus the bank details. They will withdraw all the money from your bank account as well as sending fake emails asking for a lot of money from all your colleagues and friends.
Do not believe photographs of the “treasure” or about "dead rich parents" who left behind huge sums of money in a bank account somewhere in Nigeria or West Africa.
Do not agree to travel anywhere to meet these people. They may invite you to conferences promising to host you in luxurious hotels. Instead, they sometimes try to lure victims to meet them in Africa or other countries. Victims have been robbed of everything and even murdered.
Be aware that these scams are well-known. They used to be called “Nigerian letters” because they came by mail, but now these messages also come by phone, fax, or email.

Bottomline: Be very CAREFUL with anybody or email promising you a lot of FREE MONEY!

Read about the story here

Google Africa blog launched!

noreply@blogger.com (John Kibuuka) — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 09:07:00 +0000

Google, the popular search engine, has launched the Official Google Africa Blog to discuss news, stories and thoughts in sub Saharan Africa. The 3 day-old blog, has a Google Africa discussion forum with topics on products, Internet and activities in Africa. To be able to participate in the forum, you have to pick a nickname, write something about who you are and why you are interested in the forum and finally get approved by the owner/administrator.

The blog is written in two languages: english and french. In future it would be a great idea to include Swahili which is spoken by over 70 million people in East Africa.

Gadget Competition
For the first time, the Google Gadget competition is open to East African University students. The competition launched in February 2008 and closes on the 14th July 2008. Gadgets are, small, simple applications that run on web pages. There are gadgets for easy email access, to-do lists, football results, and other fun uses. Read more about this competition on the official google gadgets page.

Prizes
Five students will receive a US$350 stipend and the winner of the Best Overall Gadget will receive a US$600 stipend.

You got only 10 days left and hurry and submit your gadgets here

World's best presentation contest 2008

noreply@blogger.com (John Kibuuka) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:41:00 +0000

You think you got the best presentation skills?! Well, a contest organized by Slideshare has just opened, running from the 25th June to July 31st, enough time to have all your entries in by then. You are free to convince the world about anything, could be your dream, NGOs, the suffering in your community - a sure way to get that word out on finally getting the publicity you so much desired for your community or project.

Enter different presentations at most 10 times to increase chances of clinching the master prize, here. Remember to register, if you do not have an account, and files must not be more than 50 MB, read more of the contest rules, at bottom of this page. Nothing to do with illegal or pornographic material is allowed for submission. East African nationals are free to participate as they not part of the banned countries list. Sudan is the only African nation banned from participation, according to the rules.

Taking time to look at the winning presentations of 2007, is motivating as it would give you a clue to what odds you have to beat to win. I have enjoyed shift happens - voted among the winning presentations last year.

There are cool awards up for grabs, among which are;

best presentation, 1st award
Apple MacBook Air worth $1799
13-inch, 1.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB memory, 80GB 4200-rpm PATA hard drive
- this is your prize, dubbed the world's thinnest notebook on the Mac site

2nd prize:
Amazon Kindle worth $359
Display: 6" diagonal E-Ink® electronic paper display, 600 x 800 pixel resolution at 167 ppi, 4-level gray scale, Size in inches: 7.5" x 5.3" x 0.7"

Micheal Lewis, best selling author of Moneyball, talking about the amazon kindle "...think of a book you'd like to read and in 30 seconds its on your screen. Its magic" read more here

Third Prize :
iPod Nano 8 GB worth $199
Could be great for listening to mp3 language lessons, music, storing all those files you want to move around with (a flash disk)

Now, lets see those prizes coming to East Africa guys, especially, UG.

Oooh the web!

noreply@blogger.com (John Kibuuka) — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 17:12:00 +0000

Its one of those days, where I spend several hours infront of a computer screen browsing around on the net. Today, is no different, with Internet cafe staff mentioning that am on course of breaking the record of sitting at the computer longest, at least in their cafe ;)

My browsing has taken me through checking and replying to my mails, reading the local dailies (Monitor and Newvision), reading a monthly scholarship newsletter, conducting a Google search on how earn-money-online, to mention but a few. Imagine doing this from morning till evening for a period of about 10 hours, only occasionally leaving to visit the restroom for a 5mins break. How many pages opened and closed, liked and disliked, detest because of their content and others you would to keep as references. At the end of it all, I can cannot recall them all, not even remember the message in the the first email I read.

The thought took back to the time I signed up for my email address, opening my first email (spam) and so thrilled some stranger is asking me to buy medicines in a US pharmacy promising that they will boost my muscles! Sweet memories, aren't they, if we were all to recall the first time we felt we were getting to communicate with the whole world. The only websites I knew then were yahoo for email and could find no further use for paying extra airtime to use the Internet.

The story is different now, with all the time so far spent today on the net, i still feel like I have just started browsing. My friends are just logging to chat on yahoo and msn messenger downloaded on this computer , the scholarships search-list is not exhausted yet (over 100 listings), I have not written a blog entry yet, so many news stories to read on google and bbc...especially the technology sections.

And now with my butt and legs almost giving way to fatigue, I cannot help it but start moaning ...ooooooh the web!!

;)

WiFi discussion...

noreply@blogger.com (John Kibuuka) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 16:36:00 +0000

An interesting discussion is emerging and making it a blog post is taking it from running behind the scenes to marvel at the different opinions that each of us may have. A background on where all this is coming from…

A comment left behind by a fellow blogger, Mario Behling, about the "WiFi teacher on Fon site" blog post runs thus,

Bringing Internet access to remote communities and making it inexpensive, accessible and easy to maintain is great. However to my mind I prefer really free wireless freifunk networks in contrast to data collecting companies like fon. I prefer not to be dependent on one company. My dream are wireless networks that act as a public space controlled by the public not by companies - just like a public street in contrast to a shopping mall. It is a question of liberty. Hope we can work together and achieve this goal together. The constant work of the freifunk community all over the world is a fantastic start for doing just that...

Personally, I got an issue with people or companies who claim that their networks are "free" "open" yet in the real sense of the word are instead caching your data, selling your details to third party companies, spamming you and worse still take no responsibility to ensure proper use of their network. Thus leading to very slow connections, virus infections – making the whole idea seem a nuisance!

Free networks are really a great idea but without somebody taking responsibility of how and what the network should be used for, may lead to network failure after a very short period of time! A case in point is when the network gets connectivity problems - who works/responds to these? Who pays for it? Who kicks off users who are out to make other people's lives hell or anti-development people? There are lots of these in the rural communities too. Students as well, are always out experimenting with viruses, new technology, and if your network is built with inexpensive equipment which you wouldn't want to overload with lots of processing-power guzzling programs, then you need someone to occasionally evaluate network performance over a given period. But still, am really pro-free networks since this is the only way to bridge the ever increasing digital divide!

Below is what Peter Kremer wrote explaining his position on being a fan of FON, though it is a direct response to Mario, I will make it available to all of us

I admire the work of Freifunk a lot, and would rather make a mesh network than the Fon thing I am doing now. But the wide open country I live in is not a suitable space for a mesh network. Further more I cope with a lack of young tweakers en hackers to do their share in the work. So for that I stick to the one village I live in. This network I keep alive for 4 years now. The work I do for Fon gives me the possibility to talk to people and influence the way they think about offering WiFi to their guest. Usually we add a free system as well. Sorry to disappoint you Mario, but sometimes you have to go for second best to chance the world a bit.

Well, now you have the whole discussion just as it has been behind the scenes. My question is, what do you think? Leave your comment behind and probably it could be another blog post.

:-) enjoy!

Wi-Fi teacher on Fon site!

noreply@blogger.com (John Kibuuka) — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 13:39:00 +0000

While on a study tour to Netherlands, I was taken in as an apprentice by Peter Kremer and his family with an objective of learning the insides of how his 9.1km WiFi link supplying Internet in the little town of baard, friesland works! From the insides of the old church building occupying the centre of baard, with squeaky stairs, he diligently climbs as he delivers his first lesson - a WiFi enthusiast must never be afraid of height! From the moment I met him while at a Wifi summer camp in Leiden; passion, enthusiasm and determination to spread the reach of the Internet via WiFi was much of what was reflected in whatever he did especially looking at the Wifi competitions at the camp. It’s definitely that passion and drive now taking him around to neighbouring towns and restaurants with the sole aim of making the Internet easily accessible and available for guests and tourists. His enthusiasm has got him voted for the best fonero of the month! It’s all posted here on the fon website

Now in his own words...

Top Fonero of the Month

Peter Kremer is a FONhero in our FON Support Community and is working to install FON Spots in the 29 villages that make up the Littenseradiel municipality in Friesland, the Netherlands.

“My goal is to install at least one FON Spot in every one of the 29 villages and in all of their recreational facilities. I believe a FON Spot is the perfect way to begin offering wireless internet connection to these areas. FON Spots are inexpensive, require low maintenance, and are user friendly. We also have an increase in tourism in the area, and I want to make it easy for our guests to get online this summer. Installing the first 10 FON Spots went a bit slowly, but now people are getting familiar with the system and we’re moving quite fast. Campsites, cafés, restaurants, hotels, gas stations, community centers and village harbours -- they are all on my list, and half of the work is already done.”

-- Peter Kremer

Congratulations Peter and keep up the good work!

:-) John

eLearning Africa 2007, May 28th - 30th

noreply@blogger.com (John Kibuuka) — Wed, 30 May 2007 15:05:00 +0000

With more than 1200 registered participants from over 82 different countries spanning 5 continents (with over 70% from Africa), 40 exhibitors and sponsors, 12 countries and 308 speakers and chairpersons from 55 countries, eLearning Africa 2007 has established itself as the conference on ICT for Development, Training and Education with the largest international audience worldwide, providing insight into what is going on in the ICT supported education and training sector in Africa.

The 2nd consecutive annual event which took place from May 28 - 30, 2007 at Safari Park hotel Nairobi – Kenya, offered an extensive programme, with 308 speakers from 55 countries taking part in plenary, presentation and demonstration sessions, as well as panel discussions within 57 themed sessions and 17 pre-conference workshops and seminars.

The main focus of the conference was on ICT for development, training and education, which is a core component of the development plans of most African governments. ICTs are being integrated into many national educational systems in order to reach the Millennium Goal of "Education for All".

Education was given a special emphasis in the programme, which included a wide range of topics, such as eLearning in medical education and the fight against HIV and AIDS, mobile learning, open source and open content, as well as eLearning in schools, higher education institutions and in the public sector.

The speakers include representatives from major development organizations such as UNESCO, UNEVOC, the Global Development Learning Network (GDLN) and the World Bank, as well as national and governmental institutions, mainly from Africa but also from Europe, Asia and North America.

eLearning Africa is an annual conference organized by ICWE GmbH and Hoffmann & Reif.

john, using the "One laptop per child", OLPC computer inside the conference exhibition hall. I wonder why they do not call it "one laptop per person" and go ahead and manufacture several for everyone in Africa. This would quickly bridge the digital divide, or what do you think?!

Lacking

- Having most of the big IT firms attending and exhibiting at the conference, we could still not broadcast the 3-day workshop on the Internet! We had all the big bandwidth satellite dishes on display but none could even broadcast event programs, videos, etc either on a LAN, Internet or TV!

- With all the networking, new friendships, ideas generated at the conference, no platform is in place to continue the sharing or discussions unless on a private initiative. A mailing list, discussion board, forum, blog etc could have been setup yet web 2.0 was a major topic as well on this international conference!

terrible travel to e-learning africa International conference, 27th May 2007

noreply@blogger.com (John Kibuuka) — Wed, 30 May 2007 14:57:00 +0000

Moving long distances in and around east africa has always excited me, but having done it for quite a long while, the interest & enthusiasm is fast fading away. Being in correspondence with the organizers of the 2nd International conference on e-learning hosted in Nairobi, a bus trip to Nairobi was another journey to look forward to at the end this May.

Early sunday morning 27th May, 0600hrs, the journey to the Akamba bus stand was in top gear and promptly at, 0700hrs, the bus was rolling through Kampala streets. With good speed, we went through the car jam on jinja street and the terrible bumps along the way towards eastern Uganda. Just before Bugiri town, the bumps are just too worse to ignore, making it worse was the driver, who was driving as if he was competing in a grand prix!
Getting to Busia border at about 1100hrs, we cleared out just fine and we were soon back on our way to Kisumu, the next big town, inside Kenya. All through the journey, am taking time to kick out the boredom, reading a local paper, The Monitor, and enjoying once again both the sugar & tea plantations that dominate this particular route. Getting to Kisumu was pretty fine, enjoyed nyama choma, rested, until we got back on the road after about 30 minutes.

The rosy parts of the journey come to a gloomy end when the bus starts to move without moving!! ;) The bus comes to a complete halt in the middle of nowhere several kilometres and hours from the next big town, Nakuru. The driver comes out with a sheepish smile mentioning that the fuel has just got finished out of the fuel tank.. A round of questions on when we shall next be on the road, where are we? Why was this worked on before? Refunds? I loved their response to anything like refunds; services once sold are not returnable! A fellow passenger so frustrated, devoted time to decode AKAMBA; All Kenyans Anticipate More Breakdown Anguish!!

Regardless of the persistent re-assurances from the both the driver and his co-driver, some frequently travelers on this bus knew the right thing to do already; find alternative transport!
After about over 2 hours of patiently waiting for the bus problems to get solved, which were never solved anyway, a big number of the remain passengers too, found alternative transport.
Time check; 1830, getting a matatu (taxi) to Nakuru town is no easy task as most of the ones passing-by are all full to capacity. One later came by and carried 8 of us to Nakuru amidst strong rains and storm. It finally came to my notice that Kenyans, probably, drive much faster than the Ugandans do, do not ask me about their road accident rates!

Getting to Nakuru at about 2130, we found the mololine couches still fishing for passengers to Nairobi, on board we got as well. From the stage, the driver took us to the police station, where we thoroughly checked for explosives, firearms, stuff that could hurt others. We got to Nairobi about 3 hours later, well past midnight. I could not get picked up then and the most familiar place where the matatu driver could drop us was the akamba bus stage. Looking around for budget lodges nearby, we all got to rest our super tired bodies to atleast have sanity the next morning. Worse still, at this hour of the night, none of us could find something edible!

Lessons learn't: travel with a reliable bus service and always carry drinking water, something edible with you when you travel long distances.

;)

Dont hang on...

noreply@blogger.com (John Kibuuka) — Fri, 25 May 2007 12:17:00 +0000

Ever been in a tight spot? Pretty sure everybody has, at least, whatever each of us considers to be a tight spot!

Another question; ever been pretty happy at work and your environment but what you are doing does not earn you enough to care for your bills (housing, party, parents, etc)? Maybe not everybody has experienced that but I have.

And what do you do in such a situation? Well, you would probably, inform your boss that you are broke and he should fill your pocket with some coins. What if he doesnt? Well, you leave him the way he is and get on to find another job that can satisfy you. That quite sums up everything that has happened to me at my workplace this year.

Am happy to have setup the networks that i have, trained communities, learnt different local languages, partied and mixed with as many community people and organisations as i possibly could. But all in all, it never takes away the ever nagging feeling that you dont have enough money to pay your bills, at least, not by yourself - you depend on someone else on doing it for you - like you are hand-capped! God made us strangely, each of us loves the nice feeling of doing a job and at the end of the day getting paid for it, at least, the agreed amount. It becomes complicated when you have to tell somebody every now and then about what you want to do, as though, you not old enough to make personal decisions!

This kind of behaviour makes you think of another job with hope that it will come with financial independence with no questions on how you want to spend what you earn but only as long as you get the boss' work done! I should say this is a had decision to make, considering, you are leaving behind something that you have seen grow from almost nothing to an east african model, being so attached to colleagues & the local people, the network already set up with other community organizations allover east africa etc. But be as it may, when you finally throw in the towel, you realize that you got some independence and freedom - from everyday tasks - and your mind begins to work a little more too; especially, on where you have to earn your next crust of bread!

Well, spending time learning more about community development in Tanzania, has made me relate more with the rural poor enough preparation to rhythm well with my own career. Am out to set up as many community networks as i can; its always handy to know how to handle and network with the rural folk. The approach towards a rural person should be different from the way you would handle one from an urban area. In the urban area, we take so many things for granted, sometimes, we think they are obvious to everyone around us! At least, i have the skills necessary in handling such a situation.

enough of my thoughts...

Meditating...

noreply@blogger.com (John Kibuuka) — Mon, 14 May 2007 07:57:00 +0000

Now, I know i have been out of action for quite a while now and trust me, this is unlike me at all. I have been taking time to "chew" on whatever I have been doing the past months. Its also been a nice time to take a break from it all with friends here and there.

But well, its been so productive and life changing... Yaah, am now considering on spending more time setting up wireless networks in Uganda. Well, after receiving a some stats from a friend regarding access to ICTs in the whole world, I asked myself on whether the stats were right, on which i decided to try moving around in Uganda and find out for myself. Uganda, is among the last country in east africa with least access to ICTs, see for yourself here.

From the stats, Uganda, is far behind both Kenya and Tanzania. And on moving around to other districts away from Kampala, am forced to wholly agree that its absolutely true. There is barely any ICT infrastructure to talk about in these areas.

From the above perspective, am deciding to devote my time more on creating ICT awareness wherever I may in Uganda. Right now, am having positive progress in one of the districts in Uganda, Kasese. Last week, I was invited to the district meetings where, i was given the opportunity to talk to the district officials on the benefits of networking, especially, having their individual district offices share information on whatever projects they could be working on instead of having to physically move with flash sticks from one office to another!

Well, i will keep you posted on this. It feels nice to be back to active blogging...

Till next time.

ciao!

pics of another interesting wifi connection...

noreply@blogger.com (John Kibuuka) — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 22:03:00 +0000

This is the tanzania electricity supply company, tanesco, office in Kayanga. Notice the surrounding tall trees and the small office building below.

The parabola antenna up in the tree majestically looking towards the Internet station. We cleared a few branches to have "signal breathing space" for the antenna! ;)

The linksys wap11 getting a dressing in a 5-litre jerrycan, easily available water proof box! We later heavily covered it with tape, to keep out as much rain water, fog & bugs as possible.

Coming down the huge eucalyptus tree, after climbing 50 metres above ground. I never intended to do this but its always a wise idea if you ever want the connection to come through. Other people imagine that they are seeing where you want the antenna to point, but in reality, they are just imagining it!! Another way to prove, "if you want anything done right, better do it yourself" ;)

This is the view from the top of the eucalyptus tree infront of the tanesco office. Notice the so many surrounding masts. In the foreground, is the celtel mast; middle, national telephone company - ttcl mast; and in the background, tigo mast. Celtel & tigo are mobile phone companies offering gsm. The tigo mast is close to where our small mast with antenna is.

More pics? Visit here
Enjoy,

The 3rd node & home town now bathed in wifi!!

noreply@blogger.com (John Kibuuka) — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 21:07:00 +0000

This node has been amazing! Its something i never really had on my mind at all on doing. The next step was to setup an omni antenna and have whoever wants to access internet via a wireless network card drop in for the signal now and then. Just as I had just finished doing this, a friend and manager of the local electricity supply company, pops up at our office ready to sign up for Internet at his office, 2km away by road.

This would not be a problem at all, but his office is in a valley, total out of line of sight. But upon survey of his site, we realized he got quite a number of tall trees that could hold our antenna as we run down the cables to his office. But still, I was skeptical that we could get a good line of sight considering so many other tall trees around and infront of his office.

Having the long range multi client bridge powering the omni antenna at our base, I could confortably pick up its signal upon climbing nearby tree, about 50 meters off the ground. Well, this gave me strength to have a go at the connection. Having two linksys WAP11 radios lying around, configured one at take its position in the tree at the client side.

The 1st day, mon 12th, was all in vain, as it could not pick up any of the signals. This quite puzzled me alot and made me dig up more on how to configure the WAP11 plus whether they can interoperate with the senao driving the omni antenna at the Internet side. Reading the wap11 manual completely, solved the problem, as it clearly states, the wap11 cannot operate with any other access point unless its one of its own, that is, another wap11 on the other side! Well, i quickly configured the other wap11 and fixed it on the omni antenna on the internet side and prayed that it is powerful enough to push the signal that far.

And am now happy to report that it did not disappoint. We now have the remote site connected to the Internet and the manager is really happy.

Sharpen your IT skills @ the Wirelhttp://www.blogger.com/ess Community Camps this summer!

noreply@blogger.com (John Kibuuka) — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 12:37:00 +0000

I have had quite a good number of good blog followers in and around africa, according to my blog stats. Some of these are known to me, either from past IT workshops, email, msn and others are strangers.

To the IT guys who do read IT stuff that i post on this blog, allow me to pose a few questions to you;

-Do you want to improve your current IT skills?

-Ever had the interest of sharing and learning IT skills and experience within a limited period of time?

-Want to know, learn and experiment with the latest technology in terms of hacking, Operating systems, etc right from the experts in the game?

-Enjoy IT talk?

-Would you like to join "elite" IT forums with "kool" IT experts who are known to you, help you with everyday IT challenges, share new ideas?

Well, this and more is what you always find at the wireless community camps that are organized in europe. 2006 was great for me because, i do not regret attending the Djurslands International Institute of Rural Wireless Broadband, DIIRWB and wifisoft.org organised community camps. Today, am setting up long distance WiFi networks with skills and plenty of support from friends that i met during those two camps.

Join the mailing lists of wifisoft.org or better still check out their website for more info on how to get involved. Email me if you feel my experience in attending last year's camp could be of valuable help to you.

At these camps, there is always a multitude of people from different parts of the world who are ready to share their experiences on using Information technology, for instance; Germany, UK, Denmark, Netherlands, Georgia, east Africa, etc

Download the diirwb bronchure on their activities and the people to contact, here

Another wifi node up & running, 6km away!

noreply@blogger.com (John Kibuuka) — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 19:20:00 +0000

Mavuno, a development non-profit, 12km away by road from fadeco, base station, has now been connected to the Internet via wireless.

People always mention that making a wifi connection is fun but i have come to discover that its sometimes so stressful most especially when you are only surrounded by very eager people only ready to use the Internet. Others are so skeptical of the whole situation, that the only sentiments you hear are all negative. Being the only one with strong faith that it will finally work make everybody happy in the end, you are forced to spend time winning over allies and thus more time as you go about tuning the connection to your liking. The situation is further made complicated as you have to drive between the two locations, climb the mast, enroll somebody without a with absolutely no idea about wifi networks to read the stats on the laptop or carefully adjust the antennas, etc.

Regardless of all the trouble involved, its the sweet victory of making yet another really long shot wifi connection that brings that winning smile on your face. You quickly forget all the trouble you went through just like a new mother quickly forgets her labour pains :D
Last week was spent this way.

Marko Faber, a volunteer at Mavuno expressed interest in having an Internet connection via wireless, installed at the training centre in Mavuno. After a couple of emails here and there, the equipment was brought in from Germany by a guest visiting their training centre.

Here with Marko on top of the roof at Mavuno, super-tuning the antenna using netstumbler.

Check me out in wifi heaven ;)
Am tuning the antenna at fadeco, to align with the one at mavuno, 6km away, direct line of sight.

Finally another anode now part of the big wifi network in Kayanga :o)

More pictures, here

A fun filled week on using "dead" computers

noreply@blogger.com (John Kibuuka) — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 09:33:00 +0000

Ooh, its taken my quite sometime to update you on how we spent the past week on using "dead" computers. The participants on the very first day, were interested in changing the theme of the workshop, especially on substituting "dead" with "computers without hard disks" The argument was that, the computer was not completely dead - the rest of the other parts are working (or must be) for it to be used as a client anyway! But according to Joseph, "dead" is used as a "catch word", makes the listener think a little more about the subject.

Delegates from Uganda, Tanzania, holland came in to have first hand info on setting up and using dead computers. We missed the company of colleagues who had promised to attend from both Rwanda and Burundi. Among the participants was Ahmed Ndaula of Ugabytes Initiative, based in Kampala - Uganda; Kisembo & Steven from Kasese, Uganda; staff from Kibengwe telecentre, bukoba - tanzania and representing IICD, Bernadette Huizinga.

On the first day of the workshop, Joseph (left) and Ahmed (right) giving a program layout of the week-long workshop. Participants are also introduced to the computer terms such as "thin clients" and why not "big clients"; why use a "dead" computer when you get a "living" one? ;)

The participants are introduced to the physical pieces and bits of the computer. Hands-on training different parts of the computer, troubleshooting, maintenance, etc

The new issue of the telecentre times was also introduced to the participants. The telecentre times is an east african forum where telecentre managers share experiences on challenges and successes on how they are bettering their rural telecentres. The story of the 8km link from our telecentre to a secondary school in our community, has been published in this paper as well.

The participants getting a "feel" of using dead computers. After setting up a server using suse 9.1, floppy images for the particular network cards from rom-o-matic.org website, ltsp files and dhcp, the clients were ready to boot on the server. In total, we had 8 clients fully working on one server by the last day of the workshop.

A closer look at the suse clients after being setup. It was sweet reward for a long week's work. The participants were excited at having to use dead computers and most of them promised to set up a similar project at their telecentres. We all came to a conclusion, that most information telecentres do have computers that only have the hard disk as a faulty component whereas the rest is in perfect working order. These are perfect for acting as clients in a "server-client" relationship.

Having Bernadette launch and officially close our thin-client workshop on saturday, 17th feb, was great after waiting for her to come over for a couple of days. We could not cap it all without having a video & chat conference with Peter Kremer, via skype.

Pictures, always so nice at the end of workshops or meetings, and this was no different. And what best place than to have a nice picture showing exactly where the workshop was held! From (L-R): Steven Katsimbura, Kisembo John Baptist (Kasese, Uganda); Joseph Sekiku (director), and john (author).

We really had a nice time throughout the whole week, making new friends, and working so closely together but it was a time also to share skills on anything you can imagine especially when different people come together. From computers to music, scholarships, networking, etc

enjoy ;)

Announces an ICT workshop on thin clients

noreply@blogger.com (John Kibuuka) — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 09:58:00 +0000

FADECO telecentre announces an Information Communication Technology workshop for telecentre technicians, manager, computer geeks to run from the 12th until 16th feb, 2007 in Karagwe. Everybody is invited, registration is required though!

Objective:
Develop a model for rural tele-centres to deploy low-cost hardware; how to implement a thin-client network using Open source software.

Target:
The course is intended for those running/ managing information resource centres, computer labs and IT technicians.

Modus operandi:
The training will offer a hands-on experience and training on how to make the best use of your networks. The training will run from 8.30 a.m - 6.30 P.M every day for 5 days. It will cover every thing from building a computer, installing software, configuring servers, etc.

Background:
The Linux Terminal Server Project adds thin-client support to Linux servers. This is a flexible, cost effective solution that is empowering schools, businesses, and organizations all over the world to easily install and deploy desktop work-stations. Thin-clients can be used to browse the Web, send e-mail, create documents, and run other desktop applications. Linux thin-clients have proven to be extremely reliable because tampering and viruses are virtually non-existent.

WORKSHOP PLAN:
Day 1: Introduction to Computers and to Open Source Software
Day 2: Technical/ Mechanical aspects of the Computer hardware: Try to put together a Computer
Day 3: Setting up LAN:
1. How to set up and manage Local |Area Networks (LANS)
2. How to set up Thin Client \networks using Dead Computers
3. Basic Computer maintenance and troubleshooting.

Day 4: How to set up a Content Server. This will help all who will be interested to implement the model, to train other people effectively because you will be having content offline and in the event of no internet, you do not get affected.
Day 5: Wireless Networks: This will be an introduction and site visit to our wireless infrastructure and link.

As I already highlighted, the idea is to have these computers work as terminals, we shall need a floppy drive working and a network card available and probably 32MB of ram.

mail me if willing to attend here