Kwami Ahiabenu,II Knowledge Chief

KWAMI AHIABENU  11 JULY 2016 Passwords are the key to your online life. They are the most popular mechanism to enable authorised access to various online resources for users. At the basic level, this type of security is made up of two parameters; a user name and password. The user name is usually static while best security practices demand that passwords are changed periodically.  The genesis of passwords dates back to ancient times when watchmen would require those wanting to enter an area to supply a password or catchphrase. Only persons with the correct password gained access.  Fast forwarding to our modern days, user names and passwords (a word or a string of characters) are now required to get access to protected computer operating systems, networks, database, Internet access via Wifi, online resources, mobile phones, automated teller machines (ATMs) and cars, among others.  Fundamentally, passwords are used to identify and distinguish between users, determine...

KWAMI AHIABENU 15 JUNE 2016 Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs), play an important role in improving healthcare delivery by providing new, innovative and efficient ways of connecting the patient to the doctor. They support quality care delivery by producing better data sets for information and knowledge management, assist in disease prevention and treatment; health monitoring,  diagnostic Information systems, supporting health system management processes including (planning, budget and financial functions) and supporting the emergency, ambulatory, organ donation systems as well as the disaster management systems and blood banks. What is eHealth?  According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), eHealth is the use of ICT for health delivery including treating patients, conducting research, educating the health workforce, tracking diseases and monitoring public health.  Telemedicine is a specific type of e-Health, where medical information exchanged from o...

BloggingGhana, a membership-based grass-roots social media organisation, and PenPlusBytes, a non-profit organisation committed to enhancing governance by deepening citizens' participation through ICT, have expressed deep concern over the proposal of the Inspector General of Police (IGPs) to shut down social media platforms on election day. "We share in the IGP's sentiments about the excesses and security concerns that might come with the use of social media. However, a ban on social media is not the solution and such a ban will be a breach of citizens' freedom of expression, a basic tenet of democracy,'' the group stated. In a statement, the group cited Article 21(a) of Ghana's 1992 Constitution which grants all citizens "freedom of speech and expression, which shall include freedom of the press and other media." Elections in Ghana, the group noted,  had largely been considered free and fair because of citizen and media parti...

By Kwami Ahiabenu, II  Computing was formerly linked to physical spaces. Today, everything is in the cloud. In those days, computer or server rooms usually housed huge computing devices.  With the advent of cloud computing, however, users can have access to momentous computing power without huge investment. Cloud computing is an internet-based computing which enables shared processing capacity, storage space, data, software, applications and other resources to computers and other devices on demand through the "clouds", which is a metaphor for the Internet. Cloud computing is similar to grid computing, which describes a situation where unused computing capacity in a network is harnessed to tackle problems too intensive for typical home or office computers.  How does it work? The main idea of cloud computing is to deliver traditional high-performance computing power, usually available to military, research or academic institutions, with the ability to perform tens of trilli...

Food production is key to any country's development. From the most advanced to developing countries, agriculture is important because without this sector, their citizens can die of starvation. Human beings started food production since the dawn of creation literally using their bare hands. Over time, technology has come to play a very important role across the whole value chain of food production, starting from horse-drawn plough to current sophisticated use of new digital technologies.  New digital technology applications are now seen in every aspect of food production, from pre-production through production to post-production stages.  ICTs in action  ICT solutions are helping agriculture producers to become more effective and efficient in the whole agriculture value chain. One area which has received a lot of hype is agriculture information provision using ICTs, especially mobile phones, where a farmer is able to determine the best market to send his or her products d...

Last week I attended the ICT4D conference in Nairobi, that brought together NGO's, donors and entrepreneurs to discuss how technology can be used for development - and how (and if) we are moving from innovation to impact.  Conversations across the conference ranged from the 'big picture' talk on concerns around the regulatory environment, connectivity and taking advantage of the disruptive power of technology, to very specific project talk including how to use mobile apps to support Community Health Workers. In this blog, I want to reflect on a session I held during this conference, called Tech for open governance: where are we standing and where do we go? Joining perspectives with Jessica Musila of Mzalendo Trust and Kwami Ahiabenu of Penplusbytes , we talked about where we stand as a sector, and how we can move it into more context-sensitive thinking, using existing evidence of what works and what doesn't in tech for development. I believe ...

The Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) is in the process of reviewing its code of ethics for journalists in the country, in conformity with the emerging dynamics in media practice in the country.  According to the GJA, the review had become necessary in the light of the proliferation of radio and television stations, newspapers, social media and allied media outlets, which has made the media landscape a complex one and difficult to manage.  The last time a code of ethics was formulated for the GJA was in 1994, with the support of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) of Germany.  In connection with this, a brainstorming session was organised for experts in the media industry to come out with preliminary findings for the drafting of a final document to guide the performance of the media in the country.  The President of the GJA, Mr Affail Monney, said journalism had gone through several complexities and for which reason the code of ethics needed to be reshaped to stan...

"The Committee on Government Assurances was established to play an oversight role of the Executive arm of government in Ghana. We were faced with the challenge of interacting effectively with citizens and getting their valuable feedback on project delivery statuses. You can understand our excitement when we started the Connecting Citizens to Parliament Project in partnership with Penplusbytes to implement an innovative mechanism of connecting citizens to Parliament, using new digital technologies including SMS, an online portal, a Mobile App and WhatsApp. Our work was more efficient as, for the first time ever, we had a dedicated website on which citizens could report on projects within their communities and reach out to us via an integrated media system about other governance issues that they had concerns with. The project also equipped our committee members with technology, information and knowledge management skills. We call on all stakeholders to support us, sustain the succes...

By Kwami Ahiabenu, II @kwamigh  The world is changing rapidly. These changes are happening in part due to the exponential growth in global communication networks, particularly the Internet, which has seen the application and diffusion of new digital technologies in both developed and developing economies. One of the most popular changes is social media. It refers to online platforms and applications that enable users to interact through the generation and sharing of content glued together by group dynamics. It is important to note that social networking dates back to the creation of the world. Therefore social media can be seen to be empowering users to expand an age old activity in a profound manner. Currently, social media applications are seen in all aspects of human undertakings.  There are a thousand and one social media tools in use around the world  with  Facebook( 1,100,000,000), Twitter (310,000,000), LinkedIn (255,000,000), Pinterest (250,000,000) and Googl...

Penplusbytes is participating in the next edition of the Sub-Sahara Africa Upstream Oil and Gas Summit and Exhibition to be held in Accra, Ghana from 6th – 8th April 2016 with the theme "Preparing for the Challenges of Changing Times". This is to give Penplusbytes, which plays a leading role in the extractive industry insight provision, networking of key actors and international media training, an opportunity to interact with other players in the upstream oil and gas industry. The conference is expected to attract top industry players from across Africa and beyond with forty participating organizations and eighteen speakers. Key amongst which include  Chris Bredenhann  of Partner Pricewater Coopers, South Africa and Head of PwC Africa Oil and Gas Desk,  Victor Eromosele , an oil and gas industry expert who has been in the career for more than 33 years, holding 19 management positions and  Sim Katende , a legal advisor to the Government on the procurement of a lead in...

By: Kwami Ahiabenu II Date : Wednesday, 13 January 2016 22:47 Election is undoubtedly on the mind of almost every Ghanaian as we usher in 2016. Apart from being the bedrock of our 'progressive' democracy, elections provide the power and means for the general populace to elect their leaders both at the presidential and parliamentary levels and provide the opportunity for the ordinary citizen to hold political leaders in check and accountable. The electoral processes involved in the lead up to and the main elections should be a home run at this point in Ghana's history. After all, per Huntington's two-turnover test, Ghana has achieved democratic consolidation and all political actors seem to be willing to play by democratic rules. However, the 2016 election promises to test how deep Ghana's supposed consolidated democracy is. With this promise comes the usage of new digital technologies and the possibility of it impacting the election in both...