Kwami Ahiabenu,II Knowledge Chief

Traditionally, "civic action" is seen as a public space where citizens work towards a collective good. Fast forward today, technology is expanding civic action to include many more public actions especially the ones of interactive nature. Civic action appears to be one of those phenomena which defy technology as its most successful episodes are driven by actual people, doing actual things; writing, picketing, marching etc. The Arab spring and a host of other events, perhaps before and after, have shown that digital technology is opening unparalleled arenas for collective action to happen without the need for face-to-face engagement.  A majority of civil society actors have increased their use of new digital technologies in conjunction with time-tested strategies for advocacy and to bring about change in critical areas of development. Others have as yet to join the space, in spite of admitting that technology will indeed help their work in many ways than one. For this group, c...

Technology is enabling significant transformation of taxation systems around the world. Taxation can be described as a compulsory levy imposed on income, profits and general goods and services by a taxing authority, usually a government, both at local and national levels. The history of taxation dates back to the early stages of civilisation where taxes were paid in kind to feudal lords and other aristocrats who generally owned the lands that others worked and lived off. Over time, taxation evolved as society made progress in all areas. In Estonia, for example, people are able to file their taxes online in three minutes using  e-Tax , an electronic tax filing system set up by the Estonian Tax and Customs Board.  In recent years, robots and other forms of artificial intelligence have been introduced into the taxing industry, helping especially businesses and high turnover tax outlets such as retail shops and huge businesses to complete tax returns which are not only tim...

How Fake News Is Creating Alternative Realties: A New Study Reveals Debunking Fake News Needs Innovative Strategies   Accra – Wednesday, 2 nd May 2018 A debut study by Penplusbytes www.penplusbytes.org on Fake News in Ghana has shown that the Ghanaian media landscape does not have systems, budgets or trained personnel dedicated to combat the menace of Fake News. The study; Media Perspectives on Fake News in Ghana ( www.penplusbytes.org/fakenews ) also establishes that in Ghana “bait and click” is the commonest form of fake news; fabricated content and false headlines without connection to content. Globally, fake news or hoaxes, usually in the form of misinformation, spin, outright lies and fabrications has been around for a long time. But in recent times, fake news has seen rapid growth due to social media and other new digital tools which are enablers with attendant adverse impact on citizens...

http://www.westminsterforumprojects.co.uk/conference/fake-news-18?_cldee=a3dhbWlAcGVucGx1c2J5dGVzLm9yZw%3d%3d&recipientid=contact-d5e71ea24f30e71180d9005056a456ce-22febcc9140146a6affa6fb1c2eac8e7&esid=4628fce1-5f3e-e811-80f1-005056a456ce Sent from Penplusbytes mobile

  Participants @Social Accountability Multi-Stakeholder Forum, seated third from the right, Kwami Ahiabenu,II    CDD File: Delegation from Rwanda The Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Marfo, has expressed government’s commitment towards supporting Civil Society Organisations (CSOs)-led social accountability initiatives because of its belief in partnerships between government and the citizenry. He said government continues to demonstrate that zeal through the organisation of the Annual Policy Fair which brings together, government, CSOs and the private sector as well as development partners to dialogue on policies and programmes that could help government provide social services to the populace. In a speech read on his behalf at the two-day Social Accountability and Multi Stakeholder Forum in Accra, Mr. Marfo said in Ghana, participation of citizen in developmen...

By Kwami Ahiabenu,II  Blockchain is a good example of distributed technology in action. Invented in 2008 to run the peer-to-peer digital cash, Bitcoin, this technology has evolved to power other applications for things such as copyright protection, tracking of ownership, voting, digital assets management, among others. Blockchains are essentially a digital ledger which chronicles transactions and makes them publicly available. How does it work In the parlance of cryptocurrency, a block records a new set of transactions. Once this transaction is completed as a block, it is added to the chain, resulting in a chain of blocks; blockchains. Since elements of blockchain are encrypted (the data they contain is coded and unreadable, thereby preventing unauthorised access), processing these transactions involve the solving of complicated mathematical problems which become more difficult as the blockchain builds up. “Mining” is the process of solving these equations and the miner...

Messaging services power modern communications. WhatsApp is no doubt one of the most popular messaging service, standing tall among other services such as Viber, Google hangouts, Signal, Hipchat(now Stride ), Skype, Facebook Messenger, We Chat, Line, MessageMe, Piip,Tango , KIK and AIM. Currently, WhatsApp is so pervasive in Ghana that we can estimate 90 per cent of information flows around WhatsApp, actualised by a myriad of groups and broadcast lists covering all aspects of society; political groups, social networks, business, board level. There are ad hoc groups discussing serious issues, making important decisions, and even fun and mundane type conversations. History After leaving Yahoo, Brian Acton and Jan Koum, the founders of WhatsApp, applied to work with facebook but their job application was rejected. The rejection turned out to be a blessing in disguise because it gave them the opportunity to create WhatsApp in 2009 powered by the vision of ensuring that people...