Last month, while interacting with Joshua Wanyama, a Kenyan web developer based in Minneapolis, and one the brains behind the nascent African news/blog portal, African Path, it felt I was listening to my own speech. That was how relevant his portal is to me, and I’m sure the other bloggers that have posted about the project probably feel that way.
African Path is one project to watch, just as the Muti-Blog – a new addition to Neville’s Muti. Neviile Newey is a South African and the owner of the wildly successful Muti, a Digg-like, bookmarking and blog/news aggregating combo. If you haven’t seen the News map, a mash up of Google map and Yahoo news feeds, then do so how smart Neville is.
These folks have been able to demonstrate why Africans need to step up to the plate and offer some needed services, particularly in the media coverage of the continent – a topic I have been studying for some time, and which I and few others also intend to actively partake. These, and other pan-African projects I blogged about in earlier posts, are excellent concepts in depth and scope and the least I can do is wish the owners the best.
As the trailblazers, some valuable lessons will be learned from their actions, as well as that of the target population, since their success will depend on implementation and how their users interact with them.
The heat is on, and the clock is ticking, who makes it and who flunks? This is a question only time will answer. This is going to be an exciting year.
It’s amazing how blogs and citizen media in general have made global interaction easy. The barrier to entry is almost next to nothing, even in places with some serious infrastructural limitations, people blog.
If not for the emergence of blogs, how on earth would I come across the interesting folks I met in New Delhi during the brain-storming session on Hibiscus Project, or the energetic men and women that visit the Grandiose Parlor reading and commenting to the often incoherent rantings? Neither would I have had the chance to interact with Cegieu, a Polish blogger who happens to be a fan of the Super Eagles, the Nigerian national soccer team, if not for blogs.
Cegieu blogs at Nigeria.blox.pl, and in Polish, and I suspect he’s have never been to Nigeria, yet he writes about Nigeria. Even though I can’t read a sentence in Polish, I sense his blog entries are interesting and equally as relevant as those posted by Nigerian bloggers.
I asked Cegieu why he blogs about Nigeria, this is his response, unedited: Continue reading…
To the millions of web-content mongering fanatics, geeky web 2.0 aficionados, web-based activists/advocates, bloggers and general members of “Citizen Media” Inc, the year 2006 is for you. You are Time’s Person of the Year.
I hope the African mainstream media turns a new leaf this coming year…the world is fast leaving them behind, and their readers too!
The White African blog has this map depicting IP per capita (internet protocol address ownership) worldwide. Expectedly, several African nations occupy the lowest rungs of the ladder.
An interesting map nonetheless, but it tells me nothing new. Moreover, the analysis is statistically biased against Africa because what drives IP ownership is national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and purchasing power parity (PPP), unfavorable indices since African nations have the lowest GDPs in the world. A more accurate analysis will adjust for the disparities in GDP and PPP, not that this will change the findings much, but at least, makes the playing field level.
Rather than getting unduly depressed, one can look at the picture from a different perspective: Even though there exist an estimated 33 million Internet users in Africa – low by global standard – Africa registered a 625% growth in Internet users between 2000 and 2006; the highest in the world! This, I can work with.
The 2006 African ICT Achievers Awards, the “Oscar” of the region’s ICT sector, recognizes Edward Popoola as the ICT Educator/Academic in Africa. Edward is Nigerian Youth ICT4D. There were 15 award categories in all, and as expected several of those went to recipients in the south-eastern axis of the continent. Via Global Voices Online.