The Gamelian World

BloggingGhana Organises First Ghana BlogCamp

2012-04-27T12:12:00.001Z

BloggingGhana, Ghana's biggest group of bloggers and social media enthusiasts presents a day of workshops and networking dubbed BlogCamp Ghana 2012. I will encourage everyone who can to attend this event as I can testify to how social media has changed my worldview and improved my life. BlogCamp 2012 indeed gives voice to the new generation!

Exchange of idea during January 2012 meeting

BlogCamp seeks to educate and inform attendees on the benefits of social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google+ and blogs. Further, BlogCamp 2012 will demonstrate how the youth can leverage the power of social media for positive social change, good governance, accountability, technology, business and education; this will ensure that there is more online content from Africa. BlogCamp 2012 will also be used to launch Ghana’s first Social Media Awards scheme, aimed at rewarding various activists and contributors to the growth of social media in Ghana. Visit the BlogCamp Agenda page for further details.

BlogCamp 2012 has been made possible through the efforts of the BloggingGhana Community and the kind support of our partners: Vodafone, Google, United States Embassy, Nandimobile, Web4Africa, Citi 97.3 Fm, Mawuli Sikanku Photography and REDD Kat Pictures.

Enter your details into the BlogCamp 2012 registration page to be part of this wonderful programme. For more information, visit the BlogCamp Ghana website or connect with BloggingGhana through Twitter, Facebook or Google +. We will be posting with the hash tags #BlogCamp12 and #BloggingGhana. Send your inquiries and we will get back to you immediately. Be part of BlogCamp 2012, Voice of a New Generation!

Ghanaian Developers Put Python and Other Technologies in Action

2012-04-17T23:35:00.000Z

A cross-section of Ghana’s developer community gathered at BusyInternet, Accra, last Saturday, 14th April as part of Coders4Africa (C4A)’s monthly Coders in Action series. This month’s event was put together in collaboration with Python African Tour (PAT), and focus was naturally on using Python and allied technologies to build useful applications for Africa and beyond. It was a day of fun presentations, demos and networking that reiterated the tremendous progress that is being built in the Ghanaian tech community. Present on the day were established and emerging tech leaders such as Emmanuel Okyere (Hutspace), Adu Saarah-Mensah (PaasCo Africa) and Jojoo Imbeah (Suuch solutions). Selom Kossi Banybah, Ghana Technical Manager for C4A coordinated affairs for the day.

Pre-event interactions

The programme kicked off with introductory remarks by Kwame Andah (via Skype) of C4A and Gameli Adzaho of PAT. Kwame spoke about the essence of the C4A programme, their joy at collaborating with PAT and closed by giving hints on upcoming training opportunities. Gameli also gave an overview of Python African Tour, their activities so far, what the next plans of the tour in Ghana are (planned training events in Cape Coast and possibly another in Accra). All the attendees then took turns to introduce themselves and explain their connections to the Python language.

After the introductory remarks, the main presentations took off but not as planned as Anne Mukundi of PopKenya speaking from Nairobi, could not highlight on PHP Code Ignitor as she was impeded by intermittent breaks in the Internet connection.

Francis Addai enjoying his presentation on Pyramic

Back home, PAT Kumasi co-organiser and mFriday Training Coordinator Francis Addai showed participants how to play with Pyramid, a Python Framework. Taking time to explain key advantages of Pyramid, chiefly its flexibility and versatility, Francis could not hide his love for the framework. He rounded up his talk by demoing how he is using Pyramid to build Geekry, a system that would allow developers to give and receive feedback, giving them the impetus to improve the quality of their work.

After Francis’ great presentation, PAT Ghana trainer/organizer and CEO of Hutspace, Emmanuel Okyere, took the stage to showcase RapidSMS, another Python web application framework based on the Django. RapidSMS, he said, originally developed by UNICEF and it extends the capabilities of Django for SMS handling. Emmanuel went on to showcase sample apps developers can build with the tool, emphasizing that there are lots of opportunities they can exploit using RapidSMS.

Emmanuel walking attendees through RapidSMS

Next, another PAT Ghana trainer, Kweku Danso of ilugi, stepped up to demo Showcase, a web application that, true to its name, showcases software built in Ghana on the web. He and his team mates, Jojoo Imbeah and Henry Addo, built Showcase using the Django Python framework. Kweku’s goal for Showcase is to be a one-stop shop for finding all the latest software developed in Ghana.

Another brilliant young dynamic developer, Kwabena Antwi-Boasiako of Parallax Consult, then took over from Kweku to demo his innovation, Gspeaks, which aggregates the most interesting online stories Ghanaians care about. Gspeaks appears to be highly targeted version of Reddit aimed at the Ghanaian web user. Kwabena built his app with Ruby on Rails, an agile framework similar to the Python frameworks.

Finally, Ransford Okpoti rounded up events for the day through a short presentation on Google App Engine. He started by explaining the meaning of cloud computing concepts IaaS, PaaS and SaaS, pointing out the key offerings in each category. He then plunged into the Google App Engine, showing how developers can leverage on Google’s infrastructure to seamlessly deploy their apps on the Internet. He explained that using the cloud service was more advantageous to lean teams as they may not have the time or technical expertise to manage multiple servers on site.

Sarsah and Kweku discussing what next after the event

After Ransford was done, group pictures were taken and a brilliant day grudgingly came to an end as attendees stayed on a bit to network, give feedback, ask questions and discuss ideas. Truly, the Ghanaian tech scene is buzzing with useful activity as exhibited by another splendid day of learning and skills building facilitated by Python African Tour and Coders4Africa. It can only get better.

Group picture at the end of the programme

Biometric Voter Registration in Keta, Ghana: How I Registered

2012-04-11T23:41:00.001Z

Ghana will be going to the polls this December to elect a new president and members of parliament. As part of preparations for the election the electoral commission (EC) is undertaking a fresh voter registration exercise using biometric technology. The adoption of a Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) system has become crucial in order to minimise electoral fraud, and to ensure that whoever emerges victor is the true choice of the people.

What is biometric registration and how will it be done? I believe the video below explains the process quite well:

I registered on Easter Sunday at the Abidjan station polling station at Tegbi near Keta. Contrary to reports of a tedious registration process, characterised by long queues, from some parts of Ghana, my experience was pretty smooth. In fact, one woman who was almost done with penning down her name was the only other registrant at the centre when I got there. It took no more than ten minutes to get my brand new voters ID card.

Going through the Biometric Voter Registration exercise at Tegbi-Keta in the Volta Region

The staff of the EC were professional and friendly. They took the trouble to answer all my curious and probing questions. From them, I got to know that I was the thirty-second person to register on that day. They're not facing any major technical glitches. Hopefully, as the Easter festivities have ended, more people would go to register in order to participate in the national elections.

Which card is better? The old one or the new one? #iRegistered

So, I have my voters ID card, and the power to elect our next leaders, in my hands now. There are many issues to weigh before casting that vote, before determining the direction that Ghana should go in the next four years. The conversations have began. Ghana Decides, a BloggingGhana Election project seeks to promote these important conversations on social media channels. Starting with the iRegistered campaign, their Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google + and Flickr pages reveal the amazing efforts being made to engage the youth ahead of this year's elections. Hopefully the often ignored voices of youth, women, physically-challenged and other socially-excluded groups will count during the elections through their efforts. Refreshingly, the likes of Mashable, AJstream, GlobalVoices, Ghana News Agency and the government portal are following keenly what the youth of Ghana are trying to achieve using social media.

For now, I will keep a keen eye on events as they unfold and make my choices based on the real issues, the issues that I and others around me face. Just like every other Ghanaian would do. Go and register if you have not done so yet. Like the cliche goes, "your vote is your power!"

How Many African Women are Online?

2012-03-08T22:58:00.000Z

African women given the impetus can put technolpgy to good use. Source: ris.lib.unc.edu

I pose this simple question to ICT4D researchers on International Women's Day 2012. My orignal intention for this post was to highlight the limited access that African women, and those in other parts of the developing world, have to the Internet and other vital information sources. But where could I find comprehensive statistics to back my claim?

Tweeting at BarCamp Takoradi, Ghana: Men dominate the show

Or, perhaps am I just tasking myself to bring a non-issue into the limelight? I don't think so. Cursory observation and scanty data available show just how grave the situation is:

Women’s participation in Internet usage in Africa ranged from 12% (Senegal) to 38% (Zambia), according to this 2003 study. This is notwithstanding the fact that women constitute the majority in most African countries.
According to socialbakers.com, far more men than women use the social networking site, Facebook in Ghana.


Male/Female ratio of Ghana's Facebook Users

Studies showthat women naturally tend to use the Internet and mobiles for personal and intimate encounters, like what persists on social networks, more than men. So why the huge disparities?

In Uganda, women's awareness and usage of ICTs is nearly three times less that that of men (ResearctICTAfrica, 2006). There, women tend to acquire basic ICT skills in order to be able to get employment in gender-stereotyped roles, it was noted.

These sad developments defeat the objectives of women empowerment as captured by the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) in 2003:

We are committed to ensuring that the Information Society enables women’s empowerment and their full participation on the basis of equality in all spheres of society and in all decision-making processes. To this end, we should mainstream a gender equality perspective and use ICTs as a tool to that end.

Team Azma coming out of the Kuyu Project Digital Camp in Kenya show the way forward for African girls and women

Not only that. Granted that ICTs have been identified as development tools and women are at the heart of development in our communities, the situation is worrying. Knowledge is power. The inability of women to drink from the knowledge well of the world-wide web is disempowering; this is the inimical to the advancement of development in Africa and elsewhere. Their lack of avenues to express themselves through the emerging digital frontiers choke their voices in the arena of public discourse. This cannot be!

Firstly, we need to be able to place a figure on the actual number of active female Internet users. Next, we should figure out the factors that inhibit women's use of the web and finally put in measures to reverse this trend. Many women are leading the way when it comes to technology in Africa, but we must support many more to bring change to our communities. Bring the women online!

Weaving the African Dream Through Social Innovations

2012-02-18T02:20:00.000Z

Picture Source: http://www.dellchallenge.org/projects/programming-kids-ghana

It is heartwarming to observe that a number of brilliant social innovation projects are continuously driving change and progress in Ghana and the rest of Africa. Previously blogged about initiatives include BarCamp Ghana, Maker Faire Africa , Python African Tour, Coders4Africa , Sunset Sports and the Kuyu Project. Today, I simply want to point to a few more projects I find inspiring.

Tech in Education: This project is the main motivation behind today’s post. Tech in Education is a 48hr gathering of ideas, people and digital tools aimed at creating novel web and mobile solutions to improve learning amongst primary and secondary school students in Nigeria. My first reaction to Femi and CP Africa’s tweets was “this must be replicated in Ghana.” Tech in Education resonates with the Kuyu Project’s objectives. We must take advantage of the abundant tools, talents and information our modern world presents us with to mould our upcoming ones better, enabling them to become agents of social innovation. Tech in Education was birth by the Co-Creation Hub of Nigeria.

Sandlanders Football: Started originally as Keta Sandlanders, Sandlanders Football aims to use sports as a tool for community development. Currently, Sandlanders have extended their reach to across Africa and even beyond. Uganda, Liberia, Kenya and India are some countries that either already have or are planning Sandlanders teams. Club ownership is based on the co-operative model, as pertains in clubs like Barcelona, and supporters are ingeniously recruited worldwide through the power of the web. All Sandlanders teams are independently run by the respective communities, while the collective headquartered in London provides support. Sandlanders Football is affiliated with Co-operatives UK and Supporters Direct, with funding from Chembe Ventures.

Farmerline: An innovative approach to minimise the effects of climate change on poor agricultural communities, Farmerline offers up-to-date and relevant agricultural information for extension officers and rural farmers. Built by a team from KNUST, this cutting-edge voice and SMS-based mobile platform recently won third place in the West African edition of the Apps4Africa challenge. They are currently gunning for another award in the Dell Social Innovation Challenge.

Programming for Kids in Ghana: Another project in the running for the Dell Social Innovation Challenge, Programming for Kids aims at introducing Ghanaian children to computer programming and software development at an early age. Apart from the software skills they gain, the children will learn to be analytical, creative and collaborative. This project has the potential to generate a can-do attitude and problem-solving mindset, seemingly lacking in Ghanaian students, among children earlier in life. The overall impact on national development needs no restating.

Golden Baobab Prize: Desirous to curb low reading levels among young Africans, members of the Golden baobab foundation figured out that part of the problem stems from lack of quality literature that African youngsters can relate to. They therefore set up an annual writing competition that to unearth new African Children writers while churning out quality literature for the consumption of young minds. Their work is receiving loud applause from organizations such as Echoing Green, Playing for Change, African Library Project and The Global Fund for Children.

Big ups to the brilliant people who are using their intellect and sweat to bring needed change to our communities.

African Spring Not the Best Way Forward

2012-01-27T21:04:00.000Z

Picture Credit: Project Syndicate

The Arab Spring: pro-democracy uprisings currently sweeping the Middle East and North Africa.

This wave of "revolutions" was said to be sparked by the self-immolation of now famed Mohammed Bouazizi, who was crashed by the seizure of his fruit cart and ill-treatment by a municipal official in his native Sidi Bouzid, after his computer science degree could not bring his many dreams to life in Tunisia. According to experts, his sad story angered many, fuelling protests on the streets of Sidi Bouzid, Tunis and elsewhere in the North African country. Almost suddenly, Tunisians' eyes were opened to the prevailing ambiance of corruption, social stagnation and dictatorship, which pushed Mohammed to end his young life. The protests boiled on and persisted, against hardline measures by security officials, until the erstwhile president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, a man who has been at the summit of power for 23 years, stepped down. The heroics of the Tunisian people were told, replayed and propagated by the powerful Western media, Al-Jazeera and social media. Soon citizens of countries in the region: Egypt, Libya, Jordan, Syria, Morrocco, among others started their own protests, giving birth to what academics and journalist called the Arab Spring.

Granted that conditions similar to what precipitated the Arab spring persist in Africa, south of the Sahara, the question has been posed by the BBC in its Africa Debate "is an African spring necessary?" Is an "African spring" looming on the 2012 horizon?

My honest answer is no. The violence, deaths and destructions resulting from protests are not what Africa needs at this moment. In fact, Africa has had its fair share of coups and realignments in its social order, some of which it has not recovered from yet. Malawian academic Jimmy Kainja expresses this thought better:

African Spring in the exact fashion of the Arab Spring would signify a step backwards - not a step forward.

In fact, it would make a mockery of all that the majority of African countries achieved in the late 1980s and the early 1990s - when they did away with dictators and presidents-for-life in favour of multiparty democracies.

It is commonly held that "a problem, once identified is half solved." What needs to be done in Africa is refinement of our democratic systems so as to get them to work in the way we want. In many African countries, goverment goes and goverment comes but still, the people see no change. Protests and wars, resulting in deaths, injuries and destruction of valuable national assets will not bring immediate solutions to our socio-economic problems. I don't see the change whatever government any uprising raises will bring. However, if we continue setting up governance structures, going after corrupt officials, voting out incompetent governments, cutting down on discrimination in its many forms, building patriotic consciousness and collaborating meaningfully with the larger world, we stand a better chance at progress.

And while angry citizens are calming down, looking for alternate paths towards socio-economic development and fulfillment, those in authority should be reminded that whatever offices they occupy should be in the service of the people. It will take only time for pent-up feelings and frustrations of deprived souls to reach that critical mass to explode Arab spring style. Institutional renewal should be catalysed immediately through governance reforms that would bring efficiency and results to the people.

Youth development, starting with our educational systems, should be at the centre of any strategy to pave the way forward. The youth themselves are taking many initiatives to bring change to their communities and beyond. Their efforts must be supported through the creation of jobs, scholarship opporunities, skills training, funding among others. They youth are our future, they hold the key to the Africa we want to see. The blood of the likes of Mohammed should not be on our heads.

Sunset Sports: Cultivating Youth Development Through Sports

2012-01-10T12:00:00.001Z

It's ten days into 2012. Happy New Year to all readers and followers of this blog! I wish you good health and success in everything you do.One of the events I attended during the holiday season was an exhibition and fundraising beach soccer match organised by Keta Sunset Sports.

Sunset Sports aims to use sports as a vehicle for youth development, impacting positively in the Keta Municipality, the Volta Region and Ghana at large.The club sees sports, fitness and physical education as the ideal way of cultivating a full productive life, embracing the maxim “Health must not be sacrificed to learning…… a sound mind lives in a sound body”.

The end-of-year exhibition game was played at Lorneh Beach Resort at Tegbi, to showcase the team's sporting talent to its teeming fans and to raise funds for the second half of the ongoing Ghana Beach Soccer Premier League. The match, which was played against fellow premiership contenders Ada Assurance, ended 3-2 in favour of the home team. There were also speeches and a cultural display. At the end of the day home fans were thoroughly entertained and impressed by how far the team had come.

You can view pictures of the Sunset Sports exhibition game on their facebook fan page.

BarCamp Ghana 2011: Getting Ahead Through Partnerships and Collaboration

2011-12-15T14:47:00.000Z

The "mother" of all BarCamps in Ghana will be taking place live at the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT this Saturday. Join us in person or via Twitter and Facebook!

After Barcamps in Kumasi, Cape Coast, Tamale and Ho, the movement is in Accra this Saturday for Barcamp Ghana. Barcamp Ghana 2011 will take place on December 17, 2011 at the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT. The theme is “Establishing Partnerships to transform dreams into action-based projects: Lessons from Mentors”. This Barcamp will concentrate on sharing, inspiring and creating stories about building partnership with attendant mentorship to create successful Ghanaian projects and businesses. This will be the 11th Barcamp in Ghana, back to the venue where it all started in December 2008.

BarCamp Ghana 2011 will feature a speed mentoring session with mentors like Bernard Avle, Kofi Akpabli, Albert Ocran, Sheila Bartels-Sam, Lionel Dosoo, Leila Djansi, Carl Ashie, Kofi Dadzie, Maximus Ametorgoh, Alex Adjei-Bram, Nana Awere Damoah, Sefakor Gbewonyo, Alfred Cran-Mensah, amongst others.

As always, there will be many breakout sessions organized by you, valuable networking and a celebration of Ghanaian ingenuity and innovation. Register/RSVP today at the BarCamp Ghana eventbrite website. If you are interested in organizing a breakout session, email us at info@barcampghana.org, especially if you have special needs.

BarCamp Ghana 2011 is sponsored by the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT, Mobile Web Ghana, GhanaThink Foundation, Fienipa Group, Spot One Global, and Nandimobile. Our media partners are ModernGhana.com, Citi 97.3 FM, and Radio Univers. BarCamp Ghana -www.barcampghana.org – info at barcampghana.org

BarCamp Ho: Harnessing Local Competencies and Opportunities for Global Impact

2011-11-30T22:08:00.001Z

BarCamp Ho 2011 is a free networking event to bring people together for a day of discussion, demonstrations and dialogue about Ho, the Volta Region and beyond. BarCamp Ho 2011 will take place on December 3, 2011 at Centre for National Culture in Ho, Ghana. The theme is “Harnessing local competencies and opportunities for global impact”. The first Barcamp Ho event will create a supportive community for entrepreneurs, change makers, innovators and other leaders in Ho and the Volta Region. Ho is well primed to support development in Ghana and Togo as well.

The BarCamp Ghana team has successfully organized eight BarCamps in Accra, Kumasi, Takoradi, Cape Coast and Tamale, resulting in a network of Ghanaian doers, entrepreneurs and change makers. Barcamp Ho 2011 is organized by the GhanaThink Foundation in conjunction with a local team of Volta Region-based change makers. This BarCamp will focus on networking like-minded entrepreneurial and change making Ho residents to partner in adding value to their businesses and community. It will also promote successful young entrepreneurs from the region, further inspiring similar activity in attendees and birthing new businesses, initiatives and projects.

Like all Barcamps, there will be user-generated sessions and discussions where attendees get to set the agenda and topics for the day. BarCamp Ho 2011 will have a panel discussion on tourism featuring Donald Diaba (iRokko Concepts), Eli Aidam (Centre for Creative Youth and Centre for National Culture) and Eric Tackie Tawiah (Ghana Tourist Board). There shall also be sessions about starting up businesses, social media, blogging and topics relevant to the Volta region and beyond.. The social media sessions will be led by Mac-Jordan Degadjor. Leti Games CEO Eyram Tawia will share his story of building one of Africa's premier gaming companies. Alex Titiloye Ojo, a recent award winner at the World Youth Summit Awards, will also be there to share his insights.

The unmistakable Wli water fall is one of the many tourist attractions in the Volta Region. How do we project it better?

Register/RSVP today at the BarCamp Ho eventbrite website. You may also contact the BarCamp Ho team through this website for sponsorship opportunities. If you are interested in organizing a breakout session, let us know, especially if you have special needs. You may also register by sending "Barcamp Ho [name] [email address] to 1945 on all networks.

BarCamp Ho 2011 is sponsored by the GhanaThink Foundation, Google, Centre for National Culture, Volta Regional Trade & Investment Fair, Fienipa Group, Nandimobile, iROKKO Concepts, Leti Games, GhanaBlogging,Cenre for Creative Youth, etc. Our media partners are ModernGhana.com.

Register at http://barcampHo11.eventbrite.com/
See you there!

Contact: http://barcampghana.org/contact or barcamp at ghanathink.org

Taking The BarCamp Fever to the Regions of Ghana

2011-11-24T21:03:00.001Z

Section from BarCamp Accra 2010

BarCamps the world over are space for idea-sharing, networking and fun. If you're a regular reader of this blog, you may be abreast with what barcamps in Ghana are all about.

For starters, a barcamp is simply a conference whose content is mostly user-generated (so we call it an un-conference). That is attendees are allowed to dictate what should be discussed and in what way it should be discussed. This allows for highly relevant, engaging and focused discussions relevant to local communities. The result is that the passion, fervour and "vim" flowing from such discussions push people to come out with many projects, in different sectors, ranging from regular businesses, through social enterprises to building intellectual communities.

And so it is with BarCamp Ghana. I've learnt lots of valuable lessons participating in and volunteering for BarCamps in Ghana. Since 2008, BarCamp Ghana has been nurturing the nation's young minds, preparing them for the future with the knowledge of skills they should be learning, networks they should be building and planting the seed of firm believe that they can thrive and succeed in Ghana despite the prevailing odds. That's the spirit of BarCamp Ghana. Some prefer to sum it up with one word. VIM! That vim is evident in all these BarCamp gatherings, as the creme de la creme of young changemakers are always represented.

One focus of GhanaThink, the organisation behind barcamps in Ghana, for the last two years, has been to spread the barcamp love nationwide. Last year barcamps were held in Accra, Kumasi and Sekondi-Takoradi. This year even more towns are joining the BarCamp train. Kumasi and Cape Coast have already hosted superb events. Tamale and Ho will be debuting their respective regional barcamps ahead of the grand party, BarCamp Ghana 2011, in Accra. Here are some quick details:

Championing local voices for development through technology and ICT

Focus: Northern region, development, NGO, community, technology
Venue: Tamale Polytechnic
Date: 26th November, 2011
Registration: Evenbrite page. OR Text "Barcamp Tamale [your_name] [your_email_address] to 1945
Connect: Facebook, Twitter, Google +

Harnessing local competencies and opportunities for global impact

Focus: Volta region, entrepreneurship, tourism, social media, local content
Venue: Centre for National Culture, Ho
Date: 3rd December, 2011
Registration: Eventbrite page OR Text "Barcamp Ho [your_name] [your_email_address] to 1945
Connect: Facebook, Twitter, Google +

Try to make it to these events if you get a chance and like the BarCamp Ghana page on Facebook!

Kuyu Project Digital Literacy Camp, Ghana: Learning How to Blog

2011-10-29T10:49:00.000Z

I'm just writing this post to show that I'm teaching Keta Senior High Technical School students how to blog using blogger, at the Kuyu Project Digital Literacy Camp. Please meet them:

Jo Webber helping students out at the computer while I demo

Digital Literacy Training for Keta Senior High Technical School Students

2011-10-24T17:45:00.001Z

The twenty first century comes with its own challenges and opportunities for the modern learner. With the proliferation of the Internet and associated technologies, learning and collaboration are taking new digital twists. The requirement list for today's student has one new subject: Digital Literacy. While other parts of the world have taken leaps and bounds in this area, Africa is picking up rather slowly. Luckily, there are a few initiatives aimed at helping African students to cross the technological chasm. One of them is the Kuyu Project, originally coming out of Kenya.

The Kuyu Project is an African Digital Literacy initiative aimed at teaching African high school students how to use social media and allied tools for social change. I am collaborating with Ghanaian blogger Mac-Jordan Degadjor and digital consultant/strategist Jo Webber to organise a digital literacy camp for Keta Senior High Technical School students. This is is the first Kuyu Digital Literacy Camp to be held outside Kenya, where the project originated from.

The objective of the Keta camp is to introduce students to a wide array of social media tools to:

boost civic activism
boost how well they can collaborate with students from abroad and within Ghana
research more effectively using online tools
build future careers using their newly acquired knowledge
increase knowledge about safety and wisely using social media

Students of Keta Senior High Technical School are bracing themselves to be part of the making of a digital revolution in their school and community, and are keen to incorporate the skills they gain from the camp in their various school activities.

Eldad Nutakor, president of the Writers and Debaters Club (WDC) expects that the programme will make students realise the opportunities that the digital world offers. He is of the view that most students think using the Internet and its associated tools is a waste of time, given the academic structure. He hopes that the massive transformation that will be seen in the lives of participants will make the others to see the light. The leader of a group of socially conscious students, Sarah Wutsikah, is looking forward to use her newly acquired digital skills to lead her group to set up an NGO right after school. She expects the programme to be interesting and hopefully get more students to be interested in ICT-related careers. Finally, ICT Club president, Lesley Commey, hopes the camp will enable them to use videos effectively to cover school events. He is also upbeat about meeting up with camp trainers and expanding his network in the digital space.

We hope the camp will contribute to raising digital champions in this part of Ghana, and contribute positively to the lives of its participants.

Python African Tour Kumasi: Programming in the Garden City of Ghana

2011-10-18T19:50:00.000Z

Python African Tour Kumasi workshops were held at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) ICT Centre and British Council, Kumasi, from 29th September to 1st October, 2011. This was a follow-up to the Python African Tour Ghana workshops/hackathons held in Accra last January. The event attracted more than 60 students and staff of the university as well as IT professionals.

The Kumasi training programme was designed to equip mostly new and passionate programmers to solve problems through computer programming (using Python of course). The specific objectives of PAT Kumasi were:

To introduce participants to concepts in programming and methodologies
To give them hands-on practice with the Python programming language
To encourage more students and professionals to take up the Python programming language

The Workshops

Problem solving, the Python way: @boyombo from Evince Systems making a point

Participants were welcomed to the training (KNUST ICT Centre) with a brief presentation of Python African Tour, its objectives and the first PAT Ghana event that was held in Accra in January. The day’s technical activities started with a general introduction to programming (i.e. concepts including variables, data types, statements and expressions, control structures, etc) by Edward Pie (@hackstockpie). Participants were introduced to IDLE as these concepts were demonstrated.

On the second day, new participants showed up, so Francis Addai (@faddai) did a quick recap of the first day’s concepts. He further continued with more examples on control structures, then data structures in Python and functions. Next, differences between using IDLE (interactive mode) and files with py extension (script mode) were pointed out, and the learners were guided to create python programs in files. Things were put in a more practical perspective after lunch when Bayo Opadeyi (@boyombo) took the participants through a voting application (web app). The Urllib2 module was used to create an HTTP server and a client to send and receive requests. It was fun!

Saturday's training started with Francis reviewing the previous day's lessons about data structures and functions. Next, Bayo led trainees to complete the voting app which was started the previous day. He then proceeded with a lecture on programming patterns (abstraction and recursion), explaining that their use makes programs more efficient. He further demoed some software he built with Python and Django. He concluded his presentation with advice for developers, sharing some personal experiences and philosophies. Francis concluded the day's training with Intro to Django tutorials.

Cross-section of #PATKumasi attendees at the end of the final day

During the closing remarks participants were encouraged to join the Ghana Python User Group and follow up on developments on both Facebook and Twitter. Students expressed interest in attending future PAT workshops in KNUST. PDFs and videos were copied for participants to go and continue exploring with the python programming language. Links to resources online were given out including the Online Python Programming Course set up at P2P.

Yedase- Thank you!

Python African Tour (Ghana) is grateful to the efforts of our sponsors and supporters: Google (Gold), BECATEC (Silver), Ageliaco (Silver), PSF (Hackathon), Hutspace, Ghana GTUG, Evince Systems, KNUST GTUG, Adroit Ghana, KNUST and British Council. Special “thank you” also to our trainers-Francis Addai, Edward Pie and Bayo Opadeyi for their enthusiasm, patience and dedication.

R to L: #PATKumasi trainers (@hackstockpie, @boyombo & @faddai) with @dotkwame and @niiadjeisowah

Kenya Hosts Sixth Internet Governance Forum

2011-09-25T10:46:00.000Z

Thought leaders in the Internet Governance (IG) community will converge in Nairobi, Kenya from 27th September to 1st October to deliberate on the present and future of the Internet. Dubbed Internet Governance Forum (IGF), the meeting is convened by the United Nations and will be held at their offices in Gigiri.

The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is an annual event; it is a multi-stakeholder platform for discussions into all aspects of the Internet Governance debate. Internet Governance itself, simply, is the coming together of different interest parties to figure out how the Internet should operate and what laws or principles should be applied in its use. IGF brings together all key actors in the Internet space: governments, the technical community, academics, civil society and corporate organisations, on an equal basis. IGF was birthed through the World Summit for Information Society (WSIS) that was held in Tunis in 2005. Considering that the Internet has become a useful tool in all aspects of human endeavour and that there are over 1.5 billion of us using the global platform, there is no doubt that the IG debate is crucial. IGF has become so important that its organisation has been diffused to regional and national levels. At the first Ghana IGF, I took part in the discussion on Youth and Internet Governance Issues.

The main theme for IGF 2011 is "Internet as a catalyst for change: access, development, freedoms and innovation". It has further been broken down into the following sub-themes:

IG4D / Internet governance for development (IG4D) [also a cross cutting theme]
Emerging Issues
Managing critical Internet resources
Security, openness and privacy
Access and diversity
Taking stock and the way forward

Various workshops, coordinated by different stakeholders, have been organised to raise discussion points under each sub-theme. For example, under security, openness and privancy, one of the workshops has been titled "Protecting the Most Vulnerable Users in Society: The Roles of Different Actors in Helping the New User Survive in an On-Line World", and under IG4D, we have "Can Digital Citizenship Scale into the Emerging and Developing Countries Effectivly? Should It?". Also, the dynamic coalitions would be having their own sessions to explore issues pertinent to their causes.

If you want to take part in the IGF but you can't make it to Nairobi, don't worry. You can make your voice heard by participating remotely. You can also share your views on Twitter (#IGF) and Facebook. To learn more about Internet Governance, you can join the Diplo community. See you in Nairobi!

What if Kwame Nkrumah Used Social Media?

2011-09-21T15:40:00.000Z

The story of Ghana's first president, Kwame Nkrumah, continues to draw many passions years after his overthrow and death. Ghana is celebrating a holiday in his honour today and members of the Blogging Ghana community, which I belong to, are writing series of posts in his memory. Last two years, my post was on what Nkrumah's vision would have been if he was still alive, today I'm wondering how Kwame Nkrumah would use social media if he had access to these tools in his time.Would he have used these tools at all?

Kwame Nkrumah, a true African visionary, progressive and political organiser, would have easily identified the networking capabilities of social networks and deployed them in his day-to-day communications. In his day Kwame Nkrumah always found time to meditate and write. Perhaps he would have been glad to share his thoughts with the whole world through blogs. In addition, I think the president would have equally be won over by the 140-character awesomeness of Twitter to send short snippets of his everyday life to the whole world. Twitter might therefore be his social media of choice.

His possible handles might be @KwameNkrumah, @Osagyefo @Nkrumah. I can't imagine a geeky Nkrumah, so he'd probably use one of the foregoing.

Some of Nkrumah's coveted quotes likely could have emerged first as tweets, with some carefully selected hashtags in attendance:

The independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of the African continent #Freedom #AfricaMustUnite #Africa

We cannot afford to sit still and be submissive onlookers of technological change #Sci4D #Technology

We face neither east nor west, we face forward #NonAlignment #SelfDeterminism #TotalIndependece

Nkrumah's work was known to have been inspired by the likes of Marcus Garvey, Nnamdi Azikwe, Mahatma Ghandi and W.E.B Du Bois. He'd probably have retweeted them copiously:

RT @Garvey There shall be no solution to this race problem until you, yourselves, strike the blow for liberty.

RT @Zik you talk I listen, you listen I talk>>> Great lesson, sir. #debate #understanding

RT @Ghandi Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.

RT @WEBDubois: Believe in life! Always human beings will live and progress to greater, broader, and fuller life.

I won't be surprised if he sent out a few thoughts running through his mind, as we often encounter in social media circles.

On the eve of independence: Feeling a bit nervous. I can't believe what we fought for has been won #GhanaisFree #Indece #6Mar57cc: @Gbedemah @Botsio @Busia

When Akosombo Dam was built: I can't wait to inaugurate this dam. The power generated from this facility will propel our industrialisation and development efforts.

Or when he was overthrown: I can't believe my people have deserted me. Ghana and Africa are in trouble. :(.

And many would have retweeted. Happy holidays!

KUMASI WELCOMES PYTHON AFRICAN TOUR

2011-09-16T14:44:00.001Z

Advancing Open Source Technologies for Development

Python African Tour (PAT) is an exciting African open source technology initiative aimed at promoting agile programming languages, mainly Python, among Africa's tech communities. Through the efforts of various developers, organizers, activists and volunteers, the programme has successfully trained interested people in Senegal, Nigeria, Morocco and Ghana to develop computer software using Python-based technologies. Similar efforts are currently underway to bring the Python African Tour experience to Kenya.

The first PAT workshop in Ghana was held from 18^th to 22^nd January 2011 at African University College of Communications (AUCC) and Ghana Telecom University College (GTUC) in Accra. PAT Ghana was sponsored by Google, BECATEC, Ageliaco and the Python Software Foundation (PSF), while Ghana Google Technology User Group (Ghana GTUG), Fedora Linux Project and Hutspace were partners. The Accra event birthed many avid Python programmers, a mailing list and the call to spread Python to other parts of Ghana.

Therefore, the Python African Tour team in Ghana is organizing a follow-up Python training workshop specially targeted at students at Kwame Nkrumah University of Scienceand Technology (KNUST), Kumasi Polytechnic (K-Poly) and other tertiary institutions in the Kumasi area. Other technology enthusiasts in the Ashanti region are also welcome to attend. This makes Ghana the first country to have a second PAT event organized.

Kumasi city centre. Picture credit: travelblog.org

The overall goal is to boost development in Africa through Python and allied technologies; this will be achieved by empowering young Ghanaian students, developers and entrepreneurs with quality skills to tackle local problems. It is also the objective of the Tour to inspire and build conversations among local developers, creating an ecosystem of cooperation, idea-sharing, collaboration and creativity.

Python African Tour takes a different approach from other tech-related conferences that have been held in Ghana due to its focus on hands-on Python training and skills transfer, opportunity local developers have been yearning for. The schedule for the Kumasi event is as follows:

19th September to 25th September, 2011: Online course – “Introduction to Python" at School of Webcraft
29th September to 30th September, 2011: Introduction to Python
1st October, 2011: Introduction to Django web framework/Sprints

The emphasis of the training regimen is on developing a problem-solving and practical approach to programming. The training team consists of volunteers from PAT Ghana team, PAT Ghana participants, KNUST GTUG members and well-established software developers.

British Council, Google Ghana/Africa, BECATEC, Ageliaco, PSF, Ghana GTUG and KNUST GTUG are supporting this event to come to fruition. Sponsorship opportunites are still available for the workshops or hackathon. Contact the PAT team via email and get your organisation to be part of this exciting initiative.

To participate in the Python African Tour (PAT) Kumasi workshop, please fill out the registration form at the PAT website now. If you are interested in sponsoring, supporting the training team or helping out in any way, please send an email to patghana(at)gmail.com.

###

Connect with Python African Tour:

Twitter: @PATGhana

Facebook: Python African Tour Ghana Leg

Using Social Media in Citizen Engagement in West Africa

2011-09-13T10:26:00.011Z

It is now common knowledge that ICTs play important roles in the development process. In West Africa, projects such as Esoko, Grameen MoTech and Project ABC are confronting the challenges of development from different angles. Another interesting area with great potential in this sphere is the role of ICTs, social media in particular, in citizen engagement.

Côte dʼIvoire-based Nnenna Nwakanma of Free and Open Source Software Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA) explores the question: "Social media and networks: what potential is there for policy engagement by citizens in West Africa?" Nnenna first gives a vivid account of the cultural diversity of the West African region and then gives key Internet statistics. She then goes on to cite instances of the usage of social media in discussing policy issues in Ghana, Nigeria and Côte dʼIvoire. From Nnenna's study we learn of different instances of social media in policy engagement:

Citizen-to-citizen engagement- During the Ivorian elections, individuals and news outlets used the #Wozonmai and #CIV2010 Twitter hashtags to disseminate information and advance different viewpoints with regards to developments. Another instance is the Enough is Enough (EiE) campaign run by a coalition of youth activists to ensure accountability during the Nigerian elections.

Government-to-citizen engagement- Ghana's Constitution Review Committee put together various channels such as Facebook, Twitter and SMS to collate views from individuals as part of the country's constitutional review process. The Ghana Police Service has equally deployed Twitter and YouTube as digital frontiers for their security and safety activities.

President Goodluck Jonathan says "let my people talk to me"
Perhaps, the leader who has used these tools most extensively is President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria. President Jonathan uses both Facebook and Twitter to engage ordinary Nigerians. The latest update on the president's Facebook page is as follows:

"Last Friday I launched a comprehensive database on all Vehicles in Nigeria designed to link every vehicle to its owner/operator such that vehicles can be traced within seconds. This is part of proactive steps we are taking as part of a review of our national security architecture to lay greater emphasis on intelligence and citizens' participation in security surveillance. Terrorism has no conscience and spares no one. We must stand together against terror in its destructive manifestations."

Based on a survey carried out as part of the research, it was found out, among other things that:

There is increasing use of Internet and social media among citizens in policy engagement discussions
Authorities are becoming increasingly aware of the use of these tools by citizens. Citizens are also of the know that the authorities are aware of their activities and may be monitoring them
Access to the Internet and social media is being seen more and more as a human right.

In light of the implication of social media in the recent political events in North Africa and the Middle East, and the London riots, the study provides interesting perspective to the situation on the ground in West Africa and future possibilities. You can freely download this study at diplomacy.edu website. I'd like to hear your thoughts on the role of social media in citizen engagement in the sub-region. What are the positive windfalls that could be gained? What are the pitfalls?

[Press Release]: Celebrating Software Freedom Day 2011 in Ghana!

2011-09-07T15:15:00.002Z

The Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT (AITI-KACE) in collaboration with the Linux User Group, Accra(LUGA) will again be hosting a special event on Saturday, September 17^thunder the theme “Open Source a viable option for achieving MDGs”. The venue for this year's celebrations is the AITI-KACE premises and the time is 9:00 – 16:00. This is the biggest international celebration and outreach event for Software Freedom globally involving 500 volunteer groups all around the world.

In an increasingly digital age, more and more of our everyday experiences depend upon software. Software influences how we interact with each other, enjoy different media, get paid, and even navigate our roads. Software underpins our very way of life, our basic freedoms such as freedom of association, freedom of thought, freedom of choice and much more, yet many people do not realize the importance and influence of software and other technologies on their lives. What is even much more important is that open source is proven to be a viable technology option capable to aid achieving the Millennium Development Goals(MDG's).

Software Freedom Day (SFD) is a worldwide celebration of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). Over 500 volunteer groups in over 120 countries all around the world are celebrating the sixth SFD this year on September 17. SFD is an annual grass roots effort to educate the public on the virtues of Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) and also to encourage its use. The goal in this celebration is to educate the worldwide public about the benefits of using high quality FOSS in education, in government, at home, and in business - in short, everywhere!

The AITI-KACE and its partners have been celebrating Software Freedom Day for a number of years and with support from the general public and the IT Community. We would like those that have attended or are attending for the first time to bring a friend along. Come and see demonstrations of open source software to suit just about every usage that you might think of. Take home some ideas, and CDs/DVDs full of software that you can use straight away.

People in Ashanti Region of Ghana can also join the Ashanti Linux User Group to celebrate the day at the University of Education, Kumasi Campus, Tanoso.

AITI-KACE is located near Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ), adjacent to the Council of State Building on 2nd Avenue, Ridge, Accra. Contacts : Fred Yeboah - Tel 0302 679542-4 or e-mail: fredericky(at)aiti-kace.com.gh

YALDA Conference 2011: Help me to get there

2011-08-10T23:14:00.008Z

Sometime late June, a friend on Facebook, knowing of my strong interest in Africa and development issues, pointed me to the YALDA International Facebook group. YALDA, an acronym for Youth Alliance for Leadership and Development in Africa, is an NGO that is aimed at training, connecting, motivating and mentoring the next generation of African leaders through university-based clubs and conferences. The YALDA network covers universities in every region of Africa, and even stretches to universities outside the continent, where there are sizeable African student communities. I got hooked by their model which seeks to marry the expertise and experience of the older generation with the creativity and zeal of the youth : Youth envision, professionals assist, Africa is transformed. Simple.

The YALDA 2011 Conference will be held at Gaborone, Botswana, from 18th 22nd August, under the theme "“Spotlight on Africa: Youth Owning the Continent’s Development Wave.” The menu is interesting and enriching, with content derived from community-building, entrepreneurship, technology, health and development. This resonates with my personal ethos and association with similar events in Ghana. Botswana is a great venue because it is an iconic African success story. Unlike most conferences I have been, YALDA conference spans four days, so there is enough time to deliberate on issues, discuss ideas, network and really get to know fellow delegates. I told myself "I have to be there."

So, I got in touch with the organisers about participating in their upcoming conference in Gaborone, Botswana. Just about two weeks ago, I received official confirmation. Botswana, here I come.

Not so quite. For the past two weeks my attempts at getting funds from corporate entities have not been successful. Should I give up?

No. With the encouragement of some friends and mentors I've set up a ChipIn account to crowdsource my fundraising in a collaborative fashion.

The results are encouraging so far. At the end of Day 1, I've raised $120, 12% of my estimated target. I'm calling on all my friends, acquaintances, project mates, admirers, readers and everyone to "Chip In" something to make my participation in the YALDA conference a success. If you don't use PayPal, get in touch with me via phone, email or leave a message in the comments section and I will follow up. I would also appreciate it if you share the link to my ChipIn page (http://gamelmag.chipin.com/participation-presentation-and-blogging-at-yalda-conference-2011) or this post in your social networks.

Support me to attend YALDA 2011 because this conference will be very crucial in shaping my leadership and social activism skills. The panels, presentations and networking at YALDA 2011 will create the platform to learn many useful things that will be infused into my activities back home, thus promoting development.

I want to use this opportunity to thank Worlali Senyo, Raquel Wilson, Kamon Ayeva, Kwame Andah, Edward Tagoe, Prisca Kekesi, Dzidodo Adjahoe, Gladys Coleman and Christopher Adika for all the financial and moral support they have given me in my journey to Gaborone so far.

Finding Business Information Ghana Style, The Nandimobile Way

2011-08-04T20:45:00.008Z

Ghanaian software startup Nandimobile, previously written about here, has stepped up gear in its quest to empower connections between businesses and their customers through mobile technology. Meet the brilliant minds behind Nandimobile:

L to R: Edward Tagoe, Anne Amuzu and Michael Dakwa

Since my last post on them, they have been up to many interesting things, including winning the best business award, for their Gripeline product, at the launch conference held in San Francisco, USA last February. Team Nandimobile is at it again. This time they've come out with one of Ghana's biggest mobile business directories dubbed I nfoline Business Directory. What does this entail?

Business Information for End-Customers

With over 18,000 listings, the Infoline Business Directory enables mobile users to search through listed businesses, via SMS, with their mobile phones. The system returns results that contains the business' name, contact details, address or directions and the business sector. All it takes to receive info on a particular business in Ghana is to text ‘’FIND [Name of Company]’’ to short code 1945. Eg text "FIND Esoko" to 1945 to obtain available information on Esoko. The platform delivers results within seconds of sending in the request and also provides more results if there is more than one entry on a particular company. One thing, the service works on all mobile networks in Ghana and goes for only 10p per SMS (charged by the customer's network).

Business Listing and Back-End Analytics for Companies

Unlisted businesses can input their details freely at Nandimobile's website after which they will be listed in the directory. An Infoline dashboard service is available for businesses interested in tracking who is viewing or requesting for their information and other important business analytics. Companies with Infoline dashboard can easily edit or update their business information in the directory anytime such changes occur.

Nandimobile's Infoline tool effectively bring businesses closer to customers and customers closer to businesses, using simple SMS technology that everyone uses.

[Press Release]: ISOC Ghana and ghNOG successfully ends ghNOG-4 and Train the Trainer Workshops

2011-07-02T09:02:00.000Z

Cape Coast Ghana, June 2011 - ISOC Ghana and the Ghana Network Operators’ Group (ghNOG) have successfully ended a train the trainer (TTT) program and the fourth edition of the UNIX system administration workshop dubbed ‘ghNOG-4’ at the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Ghana.

Speaking at the opening of the 2-day TTT workshop, the president of ISOC Ghana, Daniel Obuobi said the presence of the participants at the workshop demonstrated their willingness to join the corps of volunteer instructors who will help ISOC Ghana and ghNOG spread the community based capacity building program to other parts of the country. He said ISOC Ghana was poised to expand its capacity building program that will improve quality of service and enhance internet services delivery of network operators in Ghana. “We will count on your support anytime we have a ghNOG workshop in your area” he added. Mr. Obuobi said moving forward, ISOC and ghNOG will involve all TTT workshop attendees who reside in a locality when the workshop is held there. He hinted that with the corps of new instructors trained, ISOC Ghana and ghNOG may add new workshop tracks focused on nation IT developmental needs. The TTT workshop was attended by 15 participants from all over Ghana. Marcus Adomey, a ghNOG instructor and Bless I. A. Ahiaku, an educationist were facilitators at the workshop. The workshop was made possible by the kind sponsorship of ISOC.

The ghNOG-4 Workshop which was held back-to-back with the TTT workshop was held from 20 to 23 June 2011. Twenty six participants from industry, academia and non-governmental network operators attended the workshop. At the end of the workshop, participants were equipped with skills to setup a UNIX Internet production system with all essential services such as email and web services. Participants received books donated by Network Startup Resource Center (NSRC) of the USA. Instructors to the workshop were AfNOG / ghNOG alumni and practicing network managers from industry, academia and non-governmental operators. During the closing ceremony, the local host and head of Computer Science & IT department of the University of Cape Coast, Dr. J. M. Eghan said he was glad the workshop was held at UCC and he will be glad to promote the ghNOG community based capacity concept in Cape Coast. The workshop was sponsored by Internet Society (ISOC) and Ghana’s premier mobile telecommunication network, MTN Ghana.

Photos of the TTT and ghNOG-4 can be found at http://jalbum.net/en/browse/user/album/999386/ and http://jalbum.net/en/browse/user/album/999379/ respectively.

About ISOC Ghana Chapter

Internet Society Ghana Chapter is a certified chapter of the Internet Society (ISOC) which is a nonprofit organization founded in 1992 to provide leadership in Internet related standards, education, and policy. With offices in Washington D.C., USA, and Geneva, Switzerland, it is dedicated to ensuring the open development, evolution and use of the Internet for the benefit of people throughout the world. The Ghana Chapter was founded in 1997 with Dr. Quaynor as its founding President.

Web@2011: Fuelling the Web Revolution in Ghana

2011-06-10T16:35:00.001Z

Image taken from www.profy.com

There is no doubt that the Internet is fast becoming a key part of the everyday lives of Ghanaians. Many individuals and businesses are taking advantage of the reach, convenience and speed of the web to engage their friends, clients and business partners. Web 2.0 platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter are recording huge numbers of local users. Ghanaian Facebook users have increased to 970,840 from 277,600 in November, 2009 according to facebookcheck.com. This presents the case for business web users to develop effective skills to ride smoothly and speedily on the wave of the nascent web revolution. Creative Ghanaian social web maven, Maximus Ametorgoh and popOut are out to empower Ghanaian web users with the essential skills through Web@2011.

Web@2011 is a technology event which aims at unveiling all about the World Wide Web as a platform for connecting with the world, sharing information, doing businesses, engaging customers and meeting new people. It will further touch on how to design a website, optimize it for search engine, how to create rich and captivating web content, and ways to drive traffic to a web. The new 'virtual infection' called social media, as a consumer-engagement tool, will also be discussed.

Web @ 2011 Event, AITI-KACE, Accra

The first in a series of workshops was held on 3rd June at Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence. Various stakeholders in the Ghanaian Internet space were taken through interesting and insightful topics such as

Wealth on the World Wide Web

Web Product Development

Web Content Development

E-mail marketing

Creating a Great User Experience

Online Payment

The Game Business on the Web

Driving Traffic to a Website

The speakers were a unique blend of experienced, successful technopreneurs and young, talented, game-changing web professionals/entrepreneurs. The line-up included Herman Chinery-Hesse (SoftTribe), Charles Hansen-Quao (DreamOval), Edward Tagoe (NandiMobile), Maximum Ametorgoh (popOut), Sheila Bartels-Sam (inCharge Global), Eyram Tawia (Leti Games) and Michael Darkwa (NandiMobile). Read more about the Accra event on Edward Tagoe's blog.

Kumasi and Takoradi- Get Ready for the Webvolution!

Thankfully, Web@2011 is not one of those conferences scheduled for Accra only. The web revolution fever is spreading to other parts of Ghana; workshops have been lined up for Kumasi (17th June) and Takoradi (24th June). I hope these regional events will be successful and further motivate the organizers to take the webvolution to the rest of Ghana, and beyond, as I have been advocating.

Businesses and individuals who have a serious intent to use the web as an effective communication tool need to take time to learn the core skills that will help them to be successful in their endeavour. The higher the number of skilled Ghanaian web users, the higher the quality and quantity of local web content (applications, text, images, and videos), the higher the traffic to Ghanaian sites and the higher the revenue generated from the Internet!

Coders4Africa: Skills Training for the African Technology Revolution

2011-06-04T00:59:00.001Z

One of the key components of promoting African development through technology is skills training for its developer community. Developers need to be abreast with the latest cutting edge technology so that they can deliver compelling solutions to our software, work and life problems. Thankfully, events such as Python African Tour, G-Ghana and Garage48 have served as great learning and collaboration platforms among members of Ghana's software community. Similar initiatives are taking place all over Africa. Another interesting training opportunity making waves recently is Coders4Africa.

What is Coders4Africa?

Coders4Africa is an ongoing ambitious African technology project scheduled to run up to 2016. Its goal is to train and certify over 1000 Africans in different programming tools and platforms such as Java, PHP and Microsoft. Coders4Africa is the brainchild of Ali Kone (Mali), Kwame Andah (Ghana), Ibrahim Cisse (Mali/Senegal), Amadou Daffe (Senegal), and AlMoustapha Cisse (Niger).

Our short term goal is developing a community of African developers all across Africa under one structured roof - Coders4Africa. We want to create a pool of highly skilled African citizens in the software development industry to enlarge the labor income share thus contributing in a more equitable distribution of income.

First Ghana Workshop

On 18th and 19th June 2011, Coders4Africa will be running their first Ghana training sessions at Ghana's tech Mecca, AITI-KACE. The workshops are free to attend by software developers, system designers, computer science and information studies students and other IT folks. There will also be presentations by local software companies. To be part of this worthwhile educative event, secure your place by registering on their Eventbrite page. For more info visit Coders4Africa website or connect with them via Facebook and/or Twitter.

The team deserves commendation for putting all this together.

Tutamee: Ghana Start-up Helping You to Share and Discover the Best There is

2011-05-17T00:27:00.001Z

It is refreshing to note the respectable number of web and mobile startups that are launching innovative products from Ghana. I’ve blogged about great startups such as Leti Games and NandiMobile. Another interesting company that is trying to make inroads in the web arena is Tutamee.

Formed in mid 2010, Tutamee officially launched the alpha version of its website (http://tutamee.com/) on 27th April 2011. The co-founders of the company are Ghanaian entrepreneurs Mawuli Sikanku, Eugene Idan and Francis Bernasko. Tutamee received seed funding from the Meltwater Foundation.

Tutamee lets people discover and share the best there is of anything out there. Users sign onto the platform using their Facebook or Twitter accounts, and ask or “spark” a question. Once a question has been started or sparked, other users can vote and comment on the options available, or provide new answers as they deem it fit. These interactions could be shared on Facebook and Twitter.

Tutamee was built with the simple goal of helping people quickly get recommendations on the best of services and products through user generated and expert opinions. You can think of Tutamee as a wiki for discovering the best places, things and people. Wikipedia answers the question "what is" or "who is" while we answer the question "what/who is the best"?

All the answers given to the various questions are analysed and presented graphically. When Tutamee is fully integrated into Facebook and Twitter, users would easily get answers from their friends on those networks as well as from the Tutamee community. Considering the many times that you might have unsuccessfully tried to figure out the best bookshop in Accra, the best public health online resource, the best business school in the world or the best science fiction writer, Tutamee is a valuable tool to get the answer you need.

So, next time you’re bogged down with a question such as “where is the best fufu bar in Koforidua?”, “who is the greatest sportsman ever?” or “who is the best Spanish language writer?” think of Tutamee and spark a debate!

Expanding the ICT Innovation Space in Ghana

2011-05-02T11:19:00.001Z


Basic school pupils at Atorkor, Ghana learning with computers. Picture credit: http://mandyinghana.blogspot.com/

There is a striking difference between the rate of Information Communication Technology (ICT) adoption in Accra and other parts of Ghana. While the innovation graph is spiking speedily in the capital, and a few other cities, there is hardly any activity being recorded for places such as Tarkwa, Dormaa, Navrongo and Keta. The innovation space seems to be concentrated, clustered and reserved for only the few who dwell in cities, leaving small town and rural dwellers only dreaming of their piece of the pie. It stands to reason that if we are to witness a major technology revolution in Ghana anytime soon, we must strive to get folks in the hinterlands, especially the young ones, on the technology bandwagon. How best can this be done?

Get Quality Infrastructure on the Ground

Quality infrastructure should not be the preserve of urban centres alone. In smaller towns, provisions must be made for electricity access, availability of affordable computing devices and Internet connection. Telecommunication companies should, as a matter of principle, ensure that their mobile broadband coverage extends to every nook and cranny of the country. Laying such a strong foundation will create many sockets of opportunity from which entrepreneurial folks will draw current, and consequently ignite massive ICT adoption, innovation, wealth creation and development on an unprecedented scale.

Diversify Location of Training Centres

One step that will draw technology activity for sure to the smaller towns is the availability of ICT training centres or schools in these areas. Accra is considered as one of the high technology hubs in sub-Saharan Africa, partly due to its relatively impressive array of top notch universities and professional training institutions. The ICT curricula of these schools cover both technology and business aspects of ICT. If the same training opportunities are offered to youth from less developed areas, within their communities, they are likely to become effective innovation agents. Setting up training opportunities in deprived communities may also draw development–conscious instructors and professionals to these communities, in the name of the public good, thus creating great opportunities for skills transfer.

Incentivise Companies to Set up in Rural Areas

Once the youth of rural communities are endowed with employable IT skills, the temptation for rural-urban migration, in search of greener pastures, will arise. By encouraging small companies to set up their operations in these areas, employment opportunities will be created for local IT graduates, thus nipping the threat of migration in the bud. In addition, budding entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to assess, at first-hand, the exigencies of the technology start-up world. The emergence of a thriving technology community in Accra can be directly attributed to the pioneering efforts of its first few local entrepreneurs. This success can be replicated elsewhere in Ghana.

Show Them It Works and They Need It

Many open source tools can address the technology needs of poor communities, but a major problem faced by many ICT for Development (ICT4D) professionals is the abysmally low rate of adoption. Locals will only embrace ICT when they see it at work. Deploying exciting and effective solutions in community hospitals, police stations, post offices, schools and banks will be great way to demonstrate the beauty of technology at work. Similarly, showing local businesses how to connect with their customers and partners, in other parts of the country and the world, through online communication channels will give large scale ICT adoption a shot in the arm.

Intensify Outreach: Organise more IT Events in Rural Areas

Over the past few years, ICT-themed events and innovation fora that provide learning, networking and business opportunities have become immensely popular among Accra’s thriving entrepreneurial community. These events give many technopreneurial newbies their first taste of the modern business world. The successes of BarCampGhana, ICT Innovation Week, G-Ghana, TEDx and lately Ghana ICT and Telecom Summit will be further amplified if their messages are taken to poorer areas, where they are needed most. Again, rural folk will enjoy the benefit of first-hand demonstration of ICT applications, thus encouraging massive adoption.

Improvise, Experiment and Localise

The peculiarities of executing development projects in deprived communities make it instructive to adopt highly creative approaches that address resource challenges. Improvisation will minimize potential high operational costs and leave enough room for experiments in the earlier stages. Will it be possible, for example to have a mobile IT van that can teach computing to children in a number of villages? Could there be a way of increasing the availability of inexpensive gadgets such as One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) computers? How about exploring ways in which local content, including local languages, can make rural people relate more to sophisticated technology, thus making them amenable to its use?

To sum up, ICT’s potential as a change agent in Ghana will only be truly realised if kids all over the country are given some exposure to its usage. By building quality infrastructure, providing educational opportunities, encouraging local technopreneurship, demonstrating ICT applications and making necessary intelligent adaptations, I think the innovative space will truly be expanded to reach all people wherever they may be. What do you think?