RIA / PICTURE Africa Kampala Meeting

The Solar Powered Mobile Telephone

um, I want one. Imagine never having to search for an available power source ever again. It will however, put lots of these makeshift battery-charging shops in Africa out of business. I guess you need to just keep up with the times and the needs. Read more...

Developing Countries Farm Radio Network

A majority of African countries still use radio as their main means of communication. That's why I'm super keen on this network, Developing Countries Farm Radio Network, a group of radio broadcasters looking to use this media form to fight poverty and food insecurity. I hear on the grapevine that they are also looking for a research director in the near future so keep updated on their site.

Upcoming Conferences:

3rd Annual International Conference On Sustainable ICT Capacity In Developing Countries
August 5-8, 2007, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda

When you check out the website, there is just an insane list of topics so I guess it is just a matter of picking out the one which applies best to you.

Upcoming Meetings on ICTs in Africa

The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) will be hosting the Committee on Development Information (CODI) on April 29-May 4, 2007. The CODI body appears to service the ICT, Science and Technology. The committee meeting will take place in Addis.

Africa Development News: World Bank approves financing for internet in Kenya, Burundi and Madagascar

World Bank Announces funding of US$164.5 Million for internet connections in Kenya, Burundi and Madagascar... read more

Further ICT initiatives in Africa

Everyday, I pick up on new leads and links that help me continuously get a better grasp and perspective of ICTs and its use in development in Africa. The Shuttleworth Foundation sends out updates via email on education and technology trends from their Institute for Futures Research. It appears like it the latest newsletter is posted on their website but you can sign up for a copy. Check it out...

The never-ending fibre optic story in East Africa

East Africa is almost there on hopefully affordable connectivity! For story in Standard, read more... . Here's a whole other story from South Africa ITWeb on Telkom...

Other news:
Knowledge Politics - has an interesting write-up on the information technology history in its introduction.

ICT Research Opportunities in Africa: EuroAfrica-ICT (Start) Awareness Workshop last week in Pretoria March 30. Apparently 9.1 billion Euros set aside for ICT Research and this workshop was set up to try to faciliate networks in Europe and Africa to form the basis on collboration between the two continents...Read more...

Barcamp Kenya -Nairobi March 31, 2007

Barcamp Kenya - Nairobi March 31, 2007,
originally uploaded by whiteafrican.

This weekend, I attended Kenya's very first BarCamp, basically an informal forum where techies, engineers and everyone can come together and let people know what's happening in the industry within Kenya and beyond. A few local Kenyan groupsites and blogs of other attendees like Skunkworks , Startups in Kenya, MentalAcrobatics the rest (can be found here) and photos are already available. My take on the event was that it was wonderful opportunity to see that technology and innovation are alive and well in Nairobi. Ideas of searchable databases for parliament, "hacking the airwaves", mama Mikes working the diaspora of Kenya and the giving people the "compelling case for running internet" as Kiania is trying to do in Habibbank and other neighborhoods in Kenya were a few of the incredible developments of ICTs here in Kenya. The main organizer brought up a very good case of "compelling people to use local content" and debate on how to overcome or work with the powers of telecom control like the Communications Commission of Kenya. At the end of the day, it is about universal access, showing a demand for the web by information-hungry country that this is, and from the sound of this forum like BarCamp, the movement is about to take shape as we speak.