I just came across this article on Yahoo!: In a country where most major newspapers are state-owned or affiliated to a party, the Internet is offering an unprecedented freedom and platform for an increasingly bold opposition to the regime. Read more....
One of the people "blogging down" the regime is a female blogger, Baheyya.
8/30/2005
Bloggers: leading voices of dissent in Egypt
8/29/2005
Tanzanian Blogosphere: Update
Cross-posted at Globa Voices: English, Bilingual, and Political Bloggers in Tanzanian Blogosphere.
Read more!8/26/2005
Mobile Phone Revolution in Africa
Interesting article in the New York Times about growth of mobile phone use on the continent and Andy's take.
Lately, I have been talking a lot about mobile phone use in Africa. I get asked why I encourage Africans to blog considering the fact that very few people have access to the Internet and that computers are expensive to most people on the continent. One of my many answers is that these days the Internet is not only accessible through computers, there are many other cheaper tools such as cellphones. Mobile phones are increasingly becoming affordable to most people in Africa. It is only a matter of time, for example, before my mother, deep in the village on the slopes of the mountain of Ruwa (God), Kilimanjaro, starts reading my Kiswahili blog via her cellphone. The NYT article reports that 1 in 11 people in Africa is a mobile phone subscriber, what we are not told is that in many instances, particularly in the village, mobile phones are telecenters. One's mobile phone number becomes the contact of every villager, a teacher's mobile phone becomes the school's means of instant communication, etc.
Read more!
8/25/2005
8/23/2005
Conference on Participatory Spatial Information Management
International Conference on Participatory Spatial Information Management and Communication takes place in Kenya early next month. Read more...
8/22/2005
Media Awards for African Journalists
Individual journalists and media institutions based in Africa are invited to participate in the 2005 African Information Society Initiative (AISI) Media Awards.
PANOS/GKP Journalism Awards 2005
Global Knowledge Partnership and Panos-London are offering 4 awards of US$1,000 each to print, radio, TV and web journalists from the South who produce the best works on the theme "Where is the money for bridging the digital divide?" Winners will be invited to attend the World Summit on the Information Society inTunisia in November 2005.
Read more!Women and ICTs in Southern Africa
Ekowisa is an organization in Southern Africa using e-knowledge to build a gender sensitive information society.
Read more!8/21/2005
Dismantling taboos in Africa with a blog
BBC has an article about Ekine, a Nigerian blogger in Spain who uses her blog to tackle cutural taboos on the continent. Read more...
Read more!Most wired nation and e-slates for textbooks in Africa
While Rwanda is planning on becoming the most wired nation in Africa, Eduvision pilot project in Kenya replaces textbooks with e-slates.
Read more!Blogging and Podcasting taking off in Africa
Andy Carvin was in Ghana recently. The first mobile phone podcast from Accra was one of the successes of his trip. Balancing Act has an interesting article about his experience in Ghana and some comments and observations from Ethan about blogging in Africa.
8/20/2005
Limerick for Mr. Corrupt Minister
Last month, the British goverment issued a travel ban on a corrupt Kenyan minister. Kenyan bloggers did not leave him alone. Mshairi hit the minister with a limerick, other Kenyan bloggers were inspired. Read the comments on her post.
Youth led IT initiative in Nigeria
This is one of those day that you get lost in cyberspace forgetting completely what you were looking for in the first place. I came back with KnoweldgeHouseAfrica website.
Read more!
8/19/2005
Tanzanian Blogosphere
I have been updating the Tanzanian section on the Global Voices wiki. I am trying to find the addresses of two or three other blogs that I have misplaced. Well, take a look...
Read more!Another Tanzanian blogging in English
Idya, a Tanzanian PhD student in South Africa, has been blogging in Kiswahili for a while. I guess it was after meeting Ethan in Cape Town recently that he decided to blog in English as well.
Read more!Youth is where IT is at
The World Summit Youth Award (WSYA) is an international competition for youth-led projects that encourage the active participation of young people in the emerging Information Society. You can participate if you are less than 27 years of age. The deadline is September 18, 2005.
Read more!
8/18/2005
Presidential candidate in Tanzania sets up a blog
The presidential candidate for the opposition Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (the Party of Democracy and Development) in Tanzania, Freeman Mbowe, has set up a blog. The presidential and parliamentary elections are set to take place this in October this year. So far, he is the only presidential candidate with a blog, though he hasn't started blogging yet. Three other members of his party have set up personal blogs: Dr. Slaa (outgoing Karatu MP), Mr. Zitto, the Director of Campaign, and Mr. Mnyika, Director of Youth Affairs.
Read more!
8/16/2005
Kenyan journalist denied work permit in Tanzania
I wonder what this means in the context of the revival of the East African Community.
Read more!Chocolate made in Switzerland, no...in Africa!
Now I am going through all kinds of papers that I collected and notes that I made while reporting on the G8 Summit at Gleneagles. I have just come across a leaflet from a chocolate company in Ghana that was set up by local farmers in 1998. I don't usually eat chocolate, but considering the "pan african" sentiments in me, I had to try this one. I did not regret. Explore the heavenly chocolate with a heart...
Read more!WiFi in Africa: empty water bottles, coffee tins, bicycle spokes...
I once reported about this amazing project in Mali using water bottles to make antennas. Mereka Institute in South Africa uses a coffee tin and a section of bicycle spoke to make antennas, which are called cantennas.
8/15/2005
Globalization and Democracy: the Helsinki Conference 2005
The Helsinki conference is a global dialogue initiated by the governments of Tanzania and Finland to address the challenges of globalization and democracy. The first conference took place in 2002. The Helsinki Conference 2005 will be held 7-9 September 2005 in Helsinki.
Read more!
8/13/2005
Global Voice is Global!
Global Voices Project has been around for seven months. It is becoming a truly become global voice. Ethan tells us that the project:
- averages over 7,000 unique visitors a day
- recorded a quarter million visits in July
- it is one of the two hundred most cited blogs (on a monthly basis)
- it has been ranked in the top hundred most cited blogs in the past month
- it has been linked to in the past month by bloggers in at least 36 countries, writing in 11 different languages
- it has been extensively linked to by conservative (yes, conservative!) and liberal bloggers
Read Ethan's blog entry and his post in Global Voices about how "global" the voices have become.
Read more!
8/12/2005
World Information Technology Forum 2005 in Botswana
I announced some months ago about the World Information Technology Forum (WITFOR) taking place in Gaborone, Botswana 31 August- 2 September, 2005. This information might be late (I am not sure): The African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP Group) is sponsoring one ACP Country representative involved in the technical management of ICTs and ICT development and policy design in their country to participate in WITFOR 2005. The sponsorship is limited to one person per country. Visit the WITFOR website for more information and application form.
Read more!
8/08/2005
Educational Technology and eLearning in Southern Africa
SANTEC is a network of educational technology practitioners working in the area of educational technology and eLearning for development focusing on Southern Africa. You can join them for free if you are interested in issues of educational technology and eLearning.
Read more!8/07/2005
New English blog from a female teacher in Tanzania
Esther blogs in English from Tanzania. She is interested in indigenous knowledge.
Read more!New Multilingual Blog from Tanzania
Florence blogs in both Kiswahili and English from the commercial capital of Tanzania, Dar Es Salaam.
Read more!8/06/2005
ICTs for Education in Southern Africa
The International Journal of Education andDevelopment using Information and Communication Technology (IJEDICT) has a special issues on ICT for Education and Development in Southern Africa. I will spend my sunday morning going through some of the articles. I am little bit behind on issues of education and information technology on the region since I have been focusing on media, IP, community technology, and politics (in relatioship to ICTs).
Read more!8/02/2005
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