Afrika muss imho viel mehr in den Fokus des europäischen Bewusstseins gerückt werden (gibt es so etwas überhaupt? Jedenfalls: Afrika + Europa = imho gemeinsame Zukunft)
Ich war noch nie in Wien und würde dann gerne auch Afrah und Garen besuchen.
BarCamps = lohnen sich fast immer in vielerlei Hinsicht
ich könnte einen Vortrag über Afrigadget.com & Ushahidi.com halten
idealer Grund um endlich mal wieder Zeit in afritwit.com zu investieren (Pool von afrikanischen Twitterbenutzern bzw. solchen die einen Bezug zu “Afrika” haben)
An American woman today boarded the commuter train in Frankfurt-Rödelheim and wore an Obama’08 badge. As she kept on talking with her boyfriend about the elections and how things will hopefully change, her seat neighbour from West Africa kindly asked her for that badge and was more than happy when she handed it over to him.
“God bless you, my friend”, he gratefully replied, “God bless you!”.
Obama is much more than a candidate for the 44th presidency in the United States of America.
When we look at today’s web editions of both leading newspapers in Kenya (The Daily Nation, The Standard), we see the following news items (Obama and other US-election related news are marked yellow):
Due to a more or less funny reason, we ended up being bila a working internet connection this morning – 1&1 killed the line within minutes after realizing that a bill of about 50,- EUR (for the 16k DSL line here) hadn’t been paid for by the landlord.
As money transfers usually take some time, I quickly realized I’d have to do something about this state of being without a working internet connection because I currently really need this access for research & work.
Some weeks ago, the German mobile phone provider Fonic (that resells capacity on the o2 network) introduced a daily flatrate, meaning: you aren’t charged 0,24 EUR /MB, but instead pay 2,50 EUR per day and can surf for as long as you want! The only limitation is that they’ll reduce the speed from HSDPA (!) to GPRS once you’ve downloaded more than a GB of data / day.
Now, paying 2,50 EUR/d for a whole month is too much (30x 2,50 = 75,- EUR), but you’re only charged for the days you’re actually surfing the net. So, obviously, this offer really makes sense for those who want/need to have a location-independent internet connection for a few days only, e.g. if you’re travelling around or if you’re DSL line is offline.
To introduce this offer, they started selling a Huawei E160 UMTS/ 3.5G USB stick, containing a fresh SIM card and with a microSD slot for the proud sum of 99,95 €.
Too much for me, but I do have a 3.5G-capable Nokia N95 which never really lived up this speed until now, as my other SIM card operates on the E+ network which does not provide HSDPA coverage.
Following my aged posts on how-to-use-gprs via Suffericom two years ago, I thought about covering my experience with Fonic as well. Also, I thought it would be interesting to see this direct comparison between Safaricom in Kenya and o2 in Germany – both networks that expanded their own capacity at a similar time. But while operators like Safaricom, Celtel and Zain do not have so much fixed-line competition, DSL via your old-fashioned telephone line is the de-facto standard in most German households. As a result of that, data connections in Germany are not as badly overcrowded as in Kenya.
Getting online via Fonic is quite simple:
bought a Fonic SIM card for 9,95 EUR at a local supermarket
You have to charge it with a minimum amount of 10,- EUR after purchase
called their hotline, activated the SIM and kindly asked them to activate the daily flatrate for me (took less than 2h).
back home on my computer, I just installed the Nokia Bluetooth drivers, set up a Dial-Up BT connection to the phone, entered *99# as the telephone number and went online. Simple as that!
I mean, for the first time ever this really just worked out (= out of the box!) the way I had wished for, so now I am happily browsing the net again and currently searching for a portable UMTS modem that I can use on my computer to substitute the phone (which I urgently need for the other line).
Fonic currently also has a special deal where you enter the telephone number of an existing customer and both – in my case: me & fellow blogger Mzeecedric – are rewarded with a 5,- EUR bonus.
I know that Fonic recently provided free (Huawei E160 surf stick) sets to some bloggers here in Germany. I may have missed that – but all I want is that it works – and right now it does that without any hassle. Let’s hope it stays that way over the weekend! :-)
Oh – did I mention that the Huawei E160 has an extra socket for an external antenna? These sticks are still too expensive here, but something like that is what I actually need. Or maybe a PCMCIA card (albeit being real battery drainers…).
…or why I would sometimes like to place my colleagues at work in front of a few selected videos that will help them understand why we urgently need to rethink our knowledge management strategy (or even better: develope a strategy!):
Do you have any idea how hard it is to explain the future of the web (and how we can actively contribute to it by positioning our ideas/products) to non-techies?
This may be due to my bad rhetorics (e.g. speaking too fast), but still – another colleague told me the other day: “Oh, I think we shouldn’t put too much energy in knowledge management, but instead implement more projects”. – “No!”, I immediately replied, “I believe that a better distribution of our knowledge and approaches will also contribute to the dissemination of the basic idea we’re already giving out for free” (here: sustainable sanitation concepts).
I mean, they are still only relying on Google to search for interesting information (and are consequently overhelmed by the following information overload) while I am already relying on social bookmarking services (e.g. delicious.com), (CC)-by-sa licenced photo sharing websites (e.g. flickr.com) and blogs to find qualified (= pre-selected by human beings) materials we can use for our mission.
A lot of ppl out there constantly create great content without really thinking about how they could actually share it with the rest of the world. If you want your works to be found online, you’ll have to do something about it and not just put it somewhere on the internet and hope that Google will index it one day.
The world would be so much better if all scientist who publish their works online could just index it somewhere on delicious & co. The other day, someone even asked me if Google could come up with a dedicated service for his special topic…. WTH? – “Go and tag your works at delicious.com”, I replied, “and your files may remain on your server and thus generate even more traffic for you”.
I’ve been using Twitter as a form of microblogging for quite some time now – and what I really like about it is that you constantly get to meet new people from different backgrounds with fresh ideas and different perspectives. For those who are willing to play this game, it comes close to a virtual BarCamp. Quite inspiring.
I just wanted to mention this once because I often have the impression that not everyone really understood the meaning of blogs – and a microblogging service like Twitter (as opposed to a Tumbleblog with no comment-feedback = no conversations) is a very social, albeit also limited blog version. “Yeah sure”, you may think, “what’s so new about that?”. Nothing, actually – just the pure fact alone of meeting new folks online is something that may be underrated some times.
And for this purpose, Twitter is much better than traditional e-mails, forums, Skype/IM, #irc and even Facebook. Why? Because it’s 1:1, on a personal level.
Oh, and if you’re already busy hiding your papered 1.0 business cards in this fast-paced world, create your own QR code and stick it to the back of your phone – as this post suggests. Neat!
LEDNA – the Local Economic Development Network of Africa.
My friend, former colleague and fellow blogger Christian created this lovely site with Drupal on behalf of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SDC (& UNCDF, gtz, ILO + USAID).
Christian actually tested his design on me and others some time ago, using Silverback and directly implemented our feedback to improve this site (Silverback & Evernote are some of those reasons why I am sometimes longing for a combination of a MacBookPro and an iPhone…).
The LEDNA website aims to pool “local economic development knowledge” and “engage in community-networks to build the knowledge hub”. In other words: the LEDNA website shall provide a community of networked activists who are active in the field of local economic development and want to exchange experiences and opportunities with each other. I see it as an independent online resources that helps pooling different experiences from and for Africa by Africans. Hence the name “Network OF Africa” (instead of for).
Given the unstable internet connectivity in many African countries and a missing incentive for stakeholders (= How can I benefit of this network as a local planer?), the website itself isn’t the best solution for gathering knowledge – but it sure provides a step in the right direction and it now only depends on how it will be marketed and sold to those knowledge providers who are supposed to contribute content. After all, what really matters (I think) aren’t studies and political papers only, but real experience from the ground that provides a clear picture of what worked and what didn’t.
I really hope that this site takes off and turns into a vivid network of real-life experiences – and doesn’t only cover positive news (= what donors want to hear). As for the website itself – kudos to Christian for this wonderful setup so far!
Two interesting, but also kinda controversial articles that appeared on Der Spiegel Online today, the website of the German weekly magazine:
The first one on the ailing German blogosphere (in German) that has been busy trying to constantly polemize itself and the lack of more influential power-bloggers who also participate in politics (compare that with Loic LeMeur & Sarkozy in France). Now while there are quite a few talented German bloggers, the use of blogs is certainly not as widespread as in other European countries.
Politics = range of (controversial) subjects of which some are covered by the mainstream media, some by the blogosphere.
This may of course be due to different reasons, but then – also – there’s a vivid news culture in Germany and somehow free media that covers world affairs. Just compare that with the US media and see why there are much more political bloggers in the USA.
Comparing these worlds, I think, just doesn’t make sense (I could go on for ages on this subject – just look at the German section of GlobalVoices!). On the other hand, I’d prefer much more political activism. Activism as such, however, is often (unfortunately) labeled as left-wing socialism – and if you look at today’s public image of the German party “Die Linke” which was mainly formed by former members of the (~communist) East German party SED and disappointed socialist from Germany’s oldest worker’s party SPD, you’ll instantly realize that many Germans (of course not all, see below) today are fed up with politics and don’t give a damn about who actually rules as long as politics do not switch to an extreme and do not reactive the usual stories on Nazis & Co. I guess it’s similar in other countries. I am sure there’s a reciprocally proportional relation between political activism and living conditions.
I think this also started way back in the 1970s and 80s when green issues started coming up on the agenda and activism centered around this absolutely neutral range of subjects (~ nuclear waste). No war, different kind of demonstrations. And then, also, Germany today lacks a range of charismatic leaders. Or do you really think that Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancelorette, is that sexy? Exactly.
Which of course gets me to the upcoming visit by Jesus Superstar Barack Obama to Germany. Rumour has it that other European nations are quite pissed about the attention his visit generated and that Germany will actually have a bigger timeslot than the British or France. Vanity.
Now, with such a visit on the schedule and an adequate editorial on Der Spiegel, it may be rather obvious that the editorial department placed a link to this story: “Flirthinweise fürs Feindesland“. And while Der Spiegel is definately not THE institution or THE only credible magazin out there, they at one point in the past invented something I really, really like: a section called “einestages – Zeitgeschichten auf SpiegelOnline”, which is like a multi-authored, edited & moderated public blog for readers who may contribute their own stories, images and videos of historical events, especially since the end of the 2nd WorldWar on just about anything.
This story “Flirthinweise fürs Feindesland” actually talks about a booklet issued by the USArmy at the end of WW2 and features a rather shocking short film called “Your Job in Germany”:
Your Job In Germany was a short film made by Frank Capra and Dr. Seuss for the United States War Department in 1945, intended to be shown to U.S. soldiers about to occupy Germany. It urged against fraternization with the German people, who are portrayed as thoroughly untrustworthy. (source)
I was a bit shocked when I saw this short film today and then thought: well…despite of the apparent need for such propaganda back then (bet it’s similar for the Iraq & other “freed” nations) – may the fading interest for common politics in todays Germany also be an indirect / not so obvious result of the political influence the US had on Europe in the past?
In the end, these discussions are not about politics, but about selling newspapers/magazines and editing interesting stories people want to read about. It’s a business. And that’s just one of the many reasons out there why the German blogosphere has in the past failed to create more influential (!) political bloggers. This, however, does not also imply that ppl aren’t interested in politics.
Interestingly, the SPON article also mentioned that the German edition of Wikipedia is the second largest in the world – which instantly reminded me of this article by Ethan Zuckerman where he mentioned the ailing Arabic-language edition of Wikipedia & huge number of bloggers in Egypt.
The remaining question is: is this discussion about political activism (= contributing ideas to society), or about citizen media?
There are those maps out there which are based on statistical data – assumed, accumulated and unproven figures that may indicate a certain trend and/or just show what the situation has been when the data was collected.
…I really wonder what ppl will say about this in future, and also how many organizations will take THIS as a basis for their future planing on the availability of internet access, the spread of alternative internet browsers (such as the Firefox 3 suite) and what kind of internet-saturation (?) it takes to actively participate in such a call for a world record (read: the request to download FF3 on this particular day was imho promoted through the blogosphere? If so, it could be a nice indicator for the blogosphere).
However – 8,9 million downloads in just one day are just impressive!
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