Kwami Ahiabenu,II Knowledge Chief

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Three West African countries, namely Ghana, Guinea, and Cote d‘Ivoire, will organize elections this year and 2009. Access to timely, factual and unbiased information on elections is still a key problem in these countries. The problem is compounded by the lack of skills required by the media to navigate the sometimes difficult terrain of elections. Again, some media professionals in these countries lack information and knowledge resources required to perform their functions effectively. Furthermore the use and availability of ICT tools for journalism is problematic. In order to tackle some of these challenges, the International Institute for ICT Journalism (www.penplusbytes.org), in partnership with and with funding from, the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) and other partners, is embarking on West African Election Information and Knowledge Project. The flagship of this project is our online portal which provides country specific relevant elections information contributed...

Partners for Gender Justice Meeting: The Role of the Judiciary in Promoting Gender Justice in African Countries, hosted by the Ghanaian Judiciary, and co-organized by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), United Nations Fund for Women (UNIFEM)by International Legal Assistance Consortium (ILAC), International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ), and Brandeis University. (19 - 21 November 2008 Accra, Ghana) part of this great meeting as an event consultant

Afrique de l'Ouest L'Institut Panos Afrique de l'Ouest vient de produire une nouvelle publication sur les radios et les technologies numériques de communication dont le titre est "Radios et NTIC en Afrique de l'Ouest : connectivité et usages". Les résultats principaux de cette recherche qui porte sur 220 radios sont présentés dans ce communiqué de presse. Communiqué de Presse Malgré une connectivité améliorée, les radios ouest-africaines peinent à tirer profit des TIC Téléchargez gratuitement votre copie - Ficher pdf, 886 kilos Les radios demeurent le médium de communication le plus approprié à la communication sociale et à la communication de développement en Afrique. Après deux premières enquêtes en 2001 et 2003, l'IPAO vient de réaliser une nouvelle étude sur les radios et les technologies numériques de communication. Dans cette étude, il s'agissait de faire l'état des lieux de la connectivité des radios ouest-afr...

DATES AND COUNTRIES  26th to 27th September at Grand Bassam, Cote d' Ivoire   9 th to 10th October at Accra, Ghana 19 TH to 19 th November, Conakry, Guinea     INTRODUCTION   The International Institute for Information and Communication   Technologies (ICT) Journalism - Penplusbytes, in collaboration with the Ghana Journalists Association , REPPRELCI (Réseau de Professionnels de la presse en Ligne de Côte d'Ivoire and other key partners   with support from Open Society Initiative for   West Africa (OSIWA) is organizing two sets of training for Ghana and Cote d'lvoire.   This training workshop is in line with the vision of ensuring the media is empowered to provide high quality coverage of the upcoming Ghana's and Cote d'lvoire elections using ICTs. TARGET PARTICIPANTS     1. Print   2. TV   3. Radio   4.Community Radios   5. Online   Workshop Conte...

Speaking at GINKS www.ginks.org second ICT4D series on the theme "The use of ICTs in Effective Election Reporting" on the 2nd October 2008 at CSIR-INSTI at 9.00am.

Speaking at the Africa Media and Broadcasting Congress 2008 According to the event organisers, the congress is The most significant annual gathering of decision makers in Africa’s media, broadcasting and mobile sector Date : 27 – 31 October 2008 Venue : Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa my session will be on : Expansion and growth in African media • Sharing key points from a successful business strategy • Evolution of hardware and software – how do we remain competitive? • What does the future of media in Africa look like? see http://www.terrapinn.com/2008/mediaza/ for more detials

Sir Winston Churchill

In Open Space meetings, events and organizations, participants create and manage their own agenda of parallel working sessions around a central theme of strategic importance, such as: What is the strategy, group, organization or community that all stakeholders can support and work together to create? http://www.openspaceworld.org/cgi/wiki.cgi?AboutOpenSpace

A dream is reality which has yet to materialize - Dave McDaniel

oh Portugal I am yet to see more of you

How can African Traditional Media can tap into new Social media and blogs Dave Duarte , leading South African Blogger outline 1. Online attention economy 2. Social media and blogs 3. Value Creations in the WWW( Wild Wide World) If every thing is free online, what is not free, according to Dave a. Trust b. Brand c. Authenticity He suggested that we are living in the area of the new 4ps of 1. peer to peer 2. participation 3. predictive modeling 4. personalization He said the elements value creation WWW are - Revelation - Plasticity - Aggregation POINTERS TO TWO SITES MUTI Muti is a community site, dedicated to African content, which is driven by users posting interesting links which are then rated and discussed by others. AMATOMU Amatomu www.amatomu.com/ is a blog search engine and article aggregator, focusing on blogs published in South Africa. CONCLUSION the more you share, the more you win

Accessing Software from Open Source - the case of Nika Content Management System Prof Guy Berger In his discussion, he took a the following key areas : 1. The scope of CMS 2. Tech must be slave not the master 3. Open Source 4. NIKA 5. Lessons 6. Conclusion CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (CMS)SCOPE Six dimensions of CMS 1. "content" platform agnostic, "media assets" 2. Databased - searchable, multi- publish 3. A- Z all the work flow not only publishing to the web component which is T-Z 4. Knowledge Management - generation, coding, refinement 5. DRM - Digital Right Management - capital assets 6. EM - Enterprise Management including Customer Management System STARTING YOUR CMS You can start small but it is important to have a vision and have the big picture in mind at the outset TECH MUST BE THE SLAVE NOT THE MASTER Your strategy must drive your CMS not technology driven the technology can do almost every thing but you have to drive it in order to achieve your goal in im...

Prof Guy Berger on DIGITAL LITERACY FOR AFRICAN NEWSROOM How do you find information which is useful for your newsroom ? the presentation addressed this question by looking at * Monitor hot topics 1 Do the web a. Google alerts b. Web TAB c. RSS - via your browser - via email RSS FWD www.rssfwd.com/ - via dedicated RSS reader www.newsgator.com www.netvibes.com Google Reader when an old site does not have RSS, then you can make use of a convertor for example, www.feedlity.com 2. Yahoo pipes filter, aggregate content and mash up as well http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/ www.feedity.com/ use of online translation to manage the feed as well for other languages 3.online communities :communities of interest joining a communities of interest, with like minded and provides information important for you technorati www.technorati.com/ face book community of interest social booking www.del.icio.us.com find useful info from the rubbish on the web so go out and multiple

Africa media leadership conference 2008 opens with opening addresses by Francis Mdlongwa, , Director of Rhodes University Sol Plaatje Institute for Media Leadership, South Africa and Frank Windeck, Director of KAS Sub-Sahara Africa Media Porgramme, South Africa Key Note by Prof, Guy Berger, Head of Rhodes University's School of Journalism and Media Studies, South Africa on the changing landscape of the media online

  The Ministry of Communications in conjunction with the ICT Community organised the second national ICT Awards 2008 at the Accra International Conference Centre. It was a night of celebration, excellence and innovation. The awards ceremony was attended by 400 persons from the ICT community, business, academia and industry in the presence of dignitaries including His Excellency President John Agyekum Kuffour (represented by Hon Kan Dapaah, MP, Minister of Defence), the Hon Deputy Minister of Communications, Frederick Opare-Ansah, Hon Kojo Armah, MP and chair of the Parliamentary Select Committee and Mr. Yoofi Grant of Databank chaired the awards night programme.   In a speech read on his behalf, His Excellency The President John Agyekum Kuffour said, " I am proud of our performances in the sector as a nation and I am even proud of the excellence that some Ghanaians have exhibited in the sector". The performances of the Ghanaian hardware and software engineer...

President John Agyekum Kufuor on Saturday said the healthy partnership between the private sector and Government was yielding positive strides in the development of Information Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure and services in the country. "We have seen that ICT brings us together, it expands and improves education and agricultural production, helps in health delivery and provides empowerment especially for the girl child," President Kufuor noted in a speech read for him by Mr Albert Kan Dapaah, Minister for Defence at the second ICT awards night in Accra. He said government would continue to provide an enabling environment to support the activities of all communications service providers to ensure that citizens are not denied the benefits of technology no matter their location. Dr Benjamin Aggrey Ntim, Minister of Communication, said the objective of this year's award was to create greater awareness of the role of ICT in the public services and the dev...

  Press Release JOHANNESBURG , May 15 – Leaders of Africa's news media meet in Uganda in a week's time for an annual summit focusing on how the continent is embracing new media technologies to serve the changing needs and interests of their customers.   The senior editors and CEOs of media firms stretching from South Africa, Namibia and Swaziland in the south to Kenya and Ethiopia in the north and from Senegal and the Ivory Coast in the west will meet in Kampala for three days from May 25 for their Africa Media Leadership Conference.   The conference is co-hosted by Rhodes University's Sol Plaatje Institute for Media Leadership ( www.spiml.co.za/www.spiml.com ) in South Africa and Germany's Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Foundation ( www.kas.de /).   "This year's conference is looking at a range of digital media platforms that have emerged and continue to emerge around the world and the challenges that face media companies in Africa in adopt...

May 24-27: Imperial Royale Hotel,            Kampala, Uganda Saturday, May 24: Arrival of delegates (throughout the day) 9pm: Dinner for delegates hosted by KAS Uganda           Welcome Remarks: Yusuf Kiranda, Uganda KAS Programme Officer      Sunday, May 25: 9.30 am: Welcome Remarks: Francis Mdlongwa, Director of Rhodes University's Sol Plaatje Institute for Media Leadership, South Africa   9.45 am: Welcome Remarks: Frank Windeck, Director of KAS Sub-Sahara Africa Media Programme, South Africa   10 am: Peter Mwaura, leading East African journalist, media consultant and university journalism lecturer, former editor-in-chief of several international and regional media: "Africa's Rapidly Changing Media Landscape: Where And How Do We Go From Here?"   10.30-10.45 am: Coffee/Tea Break   Session Chair: Felicity Duncan 10.45 am: Con...

Malcolm Forbes

The public voting for the Second National ICT Awards 2008 to be held on Saturday May 17, 2008 as the world celebrates World Telecommunications Day and Information Society Day has opened. The awards is being organized by Ministry of Communications and Ghana's ICT industry stakeholders. Members of the general public can vote either by going to www.ghanaictawards. com or send the full name of their choice to 1419(all mobile networks in Ghana) via SMS until 13th May 2008. - Hide quoted text - The categories opened for public voting are as follows: 1. ICT PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR · NII NARKU QUAYNOR · ENGR MRS FLORENCE SERIKI · AKWASI PIANIM OSEI · DR HARRIET SOMUAH · SAQIB NAZIR · SAMUEL QUARSHIE 2. TELECOM COMPANY OF THE YEAR · TIGO · MTN · KASAPA · ONE TOUCH 3. TOP CAFÉ OF THE YEAR · SMART INTERNET & MULTIMEDIA · CYBERCITY INTERNET 4. TOP ICT TRAINNING/INSTITUTI ON · KNUST COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT · IPMC · NIIT · KiNET · DZODZE CHILDRENS RESOURCE CENTRE The winners from the sec...

2 ND NATIONAL ICT AWARDS 2008 – CELEBRATIONS, EXCELLENCE, INNOVATION   DATE: 17 TH MAY SATURDAY 2008 ( World Telecommunication and Information Society Day   VENUE: ACCRA INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE CENTER   TIME: 19:00 PROMPT   DRESS: FORMAL/TRADITIONAL     TO RESERVE A SEAT OR PURCHASE A TICKET TICKET COST: 25 GH CEDIS ONLY   CONTACT Front Desk, Busy Internet, Ring Road Accra, Tel : 021-258528 Mr. Desmond Boateng, MOC,   021-685608 Festus William – 0244-386042 Front desk, Ghana Multimedia Centre, High Street, Accra 021-689580   E-MAIL ghanaictawards@gmail.com   Website:   www.ghanaictawards.com   COME AND ENJOY BYTES OF FUN

Long time since I posted to this blog busy busy well, finished up with two projects 1. successfully completed an online course in "How to Build a Web-Based Course" from University of Toronto, it was very difficult since I was always pressed for time during this course. Glad that I pulled it through 2. Contributed the Ghana section on a study by PANOS entitled “RADIOS & ICTs IN WEST AFRICA: CONNECTIVITY AND USES- Ghana study” New projects writing two conference papers 1. delivering a paper on Designing and facilitating interactive online course using Web 2.0 tools at the 3rd International Conference on ICT for Development, Education and Training will take place from May 28 to 30, 2008 in Accra during the themed session on : Designing and delivering e-learning 2. the two paper is "Converged Newsrooms: A Case Study from West Africa". at the 2008 Africa Media Leadership Conference to be held in Kampala, Uganda, from May 25 to 28. theme "Doing Digital Medi...

To find out more about Twitter, visit the link below: http://twitter.com/i/6ad9861a04d54a72b6470fec19cac92d22056eeb Thanks, -The Twitter Team About Twitter Twitter is a unique approach to communication and networking based on the simple concept of status. What are you doing? What are your friends doing—right now? With Twitter, you may answer this question over SMS, IM, or the Web and the responses are shared between contacts.

Draft Program for Regional Meeting The Africa E-Governance Academy Validation Meeting Accra, Ghana April 16-18, 2008 Theme: A key for strengthening Public and Civil Society institutions in ECOWAS countries/Une solution au renforcement des institutions Publique et civiles des états de la CEDEAO Time Session Participant Day 1 Opening Session Chair: TBC 9.00-9.45 Opening Remarks Minister of Communication, Ghana Dr. Nana Tanko, OSIWA Raul Zambrano, UNDP Chantal Uwimana, TrustAfrica Ramato Molo, IDRC 9.45-10.10 Coffee Break Session 2: The Academy Concept Exiting Initiatives and country perspectives. 10 minutes maximum per presentation. Brief and upbeat Chair: TBC 10.10-10.30 Opening Remarks and Expectations Pierre Danjinou Ben Akoh 10.30-10.40 A consolidated African regional resource on eGovernance – eGovAfrica Portal. Place, values and benefits. Pierre Danjinou 10.40-10.50 A Local Governance Approach. Linking a regional initiative to a local project. LOGIN Tim Waema 10.50-11.10 The eGovern...