AfrICT (Africa ICT)

Cameroun : Un colloque international sur les réseaux et médias sociaux

Un colloque international pluridisciplinaire sur les réseaux et médias sociaux se tient à Yaounde.

Details

 

Axe 1 : Réseaux sociaux : discours, sens et signification
Il s’agit de questionner et d’analyser les réseaux sociaux comme des contenus discursifs dont les articulations et les niveaux d’organisation ont un impact sur la société en termes de transformation. En fonction des enjeux discursifs et pragmatiques qui structurent les réseaux sociaux en tant qu’instance de production de sens, l’intérêt pour les spécialistes du langage peut être de nature à déconstruire les formes et les fonctions métalinguistiques qui caractérisent les réseaux sociaux.

Cameroon's First Data Literacy Bootcamp to Take Place in Yaounde

Interested in open data and data journalism, particularly the ability to contextualize and analyze data from government and other sources? A data literacy or d|Bootcamp will take place in Yaounde from July 27 to 29, 2016  under the auspices of Code for Africa, the largest network of software developers in Africa, which describes itself as "a people-driven movement that aims to empower active citizenry and strengthen civic watchdogs to help government shape and improve its services to citizens."  

The free three-day d|Bootcamp will explore how to access and use the data in a myriad of circumstances, for example:

• Where does government spending come from and how exactly is is used?
  
• What is the real impact of development spending on the economy?
• How can we use data from civil society to track issues related to organized crime, illegal mining operations or a failing healthcare system?

The d|Bootcamp will bring together international speakers, local data journalists and civic watchdogs, alongside technologists and digital designers, for hands-on learning and collaboration on team projects.

Click here for additional details and how to apply (The application deadline is July 25, 22h00 GMT).

Online Freedoms in Focus at Abuja Internet Freedom Forum

The 2016 Internet Freedom Forum is aimed at focusing on indices around Internet Freedom in African countries and the need for African countries to codify citizens right online.

The forum will involve Internet Freedom advocates as well as policymakers, lawmakers, academic institutions, civil society from across Africa. It will also involve a moderated panel of experts’ discussion on recent developments and policy direction regarding Internet Freedom across African countries. Participants will get a chance to introduce ongoing Internet Freedom projects, and formidable partnerships will be formed through the convening. The forum joins other emerging conversations holding on the continent as platforms of discussion that enjoy the context and reality of Africa, unlike most discussions that are held by Africans, on Africa, as side meetings at global events, which only a few advocates are opportuned to attend.

Click here to visit the forum website.

All Set for the 2015 Highway Africa Conference [August 30-31, 2015]

All is set for the largest annual gathering of African journalists in the world.

The 19th edition of Highway Africa Conference will run from 30 to 31 August at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. This year's theme is "Journalism and the City" with a focus on the relationship of journalism and place, specifically the dialectical relationship between the media narratives and the city.

Watch the video below for a stakeholder perspective on what to expect at the conference.

 

For those who cannot make it to Grahamstown, you can follow the conference live on Highway Africa YouTube Channel and Twitter (@Highway_Africa | #HA2015, #CityJournalism).

Click here to go to the Highway Africa website for for additional details on the conference including the detailed program.

[Video] Tech Entrepreneurship in Africa - Why Culture Matters

Why Culture Matters. Rebecca Enonchong is the Chair of ActivSpaces, Cameroon and talks about: the differences between the anglophone and francophone start-up worlds; why Cameroon as a country with both languages is interesting; how the start-up movement started in anglophone Buea and the University it started in; the role of education; and how things are changing. 

 
Michael Ike is the Lead, Innovation Platforms and Partnerships, Abuja Technology Village and he talks about: traditional Nigerian family based culture vs rules-based cultures from elsewhere; and fitting the two together through mentorships.

Huawei Begins Installation of Nigeria-Cameroon Submarine Cable System (NCSCS)

[Kribi, Cameroon, August 4, 2015] Huawei Marine Networks Co. Ltd. (Huawei Marine), a global submarine network provider, today announced that it has commenced marine installation of the Nigeria-Cameroon Submarine Cable System (NCSCS).

Workers laying an undersea cable on the African coast (c) ticmag.net

The NCSCS is Cameroon’s first wholly-owned submarine cable with investment provided by the Cameroon Government. Spanning approximately 1,100 km, the NCSCS will directly link Kribi in Cameroon with Lagos in Nigeria, delivering 12.8 Tbps of capacity to broadband users in both countries by the end of 2015.

All set for the First Edition of Wikithon Cameroon

The first edition of Wikithon Cameroon will take place at Goethe-Institut in Yaounde on Saturday July 25.

A Wikithon is a special event organized to create and edit Wikipedia content. Wikipedia calls it an edit-a-thon, that is, an event where editors get together to edit and improve a specific topic or type of content, typically including basic editing training for new editors.

The maiden edition of Wikithon Cameroon will focus on “space” and “place” in Cameroon. According to information culled from the event’s Wikipedia page,

Cameroon is made up of space and place. This space is full of unique places which each have a particular history. Filled with forests, mountains, rivers, villages, town, savannahs, lakes, monuments and shores, this mixture calls for a better description.

GeoNames.org consist of more than 22.000 named locations in Cameroon. Only few of them have a Wikipedia entry, and these aren’t perfect. The challenge is to create as well as edit content related to place and space in Cameroon, and the most outstanding content-creator will receive a prize.

MTN Cameroon Launches Innovation Challenge for App Developers

MTN Cameroon has partnered with Microsoft and ActivSpaces to launch a competition for app developers in Cameroon dubbed Innovation Challenge.

Participants working individually or in two-person teams are required to develop and submit web, Android, Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 applications in nine categories – e-commerce, communication, same and entertainment, transport and travel, health, education, news and reference, community development, and enterprise services.

First Coworking Africa Conference to Hold in South Africa

The Coworking Africa conference, the first major event organized on the topic of coworking in Africa, is to take place in Cape Town, South Africa, on July 23rd and 24th 2015.

During two days, Cape Town will be the African capital of Coworking, an ever more successful work model that is becoming the natural professional environment of the new breed of digital workers, startups, and distributed companies who are shaping the economy of the 21st century. Coworking spaces are (mainly) open floor or building where people active on respective different businesses come to work on a same mutualised flexible place shared with peers.

[Just Published] New Book on Shared Public ICT Access in 10 Countries including Cameroon

Francisco J. Proenza (ed.), 2015. PUBLIC ACCESS ICT ACROSS CULTURES: Diversifying Participation in the Network Society. MIT Press, IDRC, 472 pg. Click here to download free PDF edition; click here to order print edition.

Public access venues – most often Internet café in cities and state-run rural telecentres – are places where people can use computers and the Internet. This volume offers the first systemic assessment of the impact of shared public access in the developing world, with findings from 10 countries in South America (Argentina, Chile, Peru), Asia (China, India, Malaysia, Thailand), and Africa (Cameroon, Jordan, Rwanda). The book documents the impacts of public access, positive and negative, on individuals, society and networks, and women, and examines the policy implications of findings.

Challenges Facing Journalistic Actors Interfacing with Digital Technology

Jennifer R. Henrichsen • Michelle Betz • Joanne M. Lisosky (2015). Building Digital Safety for Journalism: A Survey of Selected Issues. UNESCO Series on Internet Freedom. Paris, UNESCO. 103 pages.

A new UNESCO publication identifies the threats and challenges faced by those who practice journalism in the digital age. The publication also makes a series of recommendations for addressing these threats.

While the book primarily targets "journalistic actors interfacing with digital technology," it is also relevant to bloggers and anyone in any journalism-related endeavor, human rights activists, in short anyone who uses digital communications.  

The publication identifies at least 12 digital threats faced by those doing journalism, from illegal digital surveillance to phishing and location tracking.

The highlight of the book is its overview of the technological, institutional, economic, political, legal and psychosocial challenges faced by those involved in digital journalism. Here is an extract:

[Video] The New Journalism and Its Implications for our Society, Freedom and Future

In this NetGain Challenge, Emily Bell on the changing ways that our news media are created, currated, and sold, and the implications for our society, freedom, and future.

 

[Good Read] Online Journalism in Africa: Trends, Practices and Emerging Cultures

Mabweazara, Hayes Mawindi, Okoth Fred Mudhai, and Jason Whittaker. 2014. Online journalism in Africa: trends, practices and emerging cultures. New York: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group. 274 pages.

Very little is known about how African journalists are forging "new" ways to practise their profession on the web. Against this backdrop, this volume provides contextually rooted discussions of trends, practices, and emerging cultures of web-based journalism(s) across the continent, offering a comprehensive research tool that can both stand the test of time as well as offer researchers (particularly those in the economically developed Global North) models for cross-cultural comparative research. The essays here deploy either a wide range of evidence or adopt a case-study approach to engage with contemporary developments in African online journalism. This book thus makes up for the gap in cross-cultural studies that seek to understand online journalism in all its complexities.

"A timely contribution that fills a critical gap in the ethnography of African online media and press practices in evolving political cultures."
– Folu Ogundimu, Michigan State University

 

[Video] Gifted Mom: A Mobile App for Expecting Moms in Cameroon

Nteff Alain, 22, winner of the $25,000 2014 Anzisha Prize, is the founder of the Gifted Mom project, an e-content platform for pregnant women in underserved areas, to help them have safe pregnancies and combat the lack of access and knowledge that has led to high mother and infant deaths in Cameroon. Gifted Mom works with health providers and medical students to create profiles for pregnant women to send automated alerts that help them track antenatal care. Since starting his project, more than 200 medical students have been trained, 1200 pregnant women impacted resulting in a 20% increase in antenatal attendance rate for pregnant women in 15 rural communities.

Click here for an article (fr) on the Gifted Mom project in Le Monde.
Click here (french) and here (English) for a profile of Alain Nteff who was the youngest participant at this year's World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

"Pitch Day 237": Cameroonian Tech Startups Showcase their Ideas, Products and Services

17 Cameroonian startups recently came together in Douala to showcase their products and services in an event dubbed “Pitch Day 237.” 

The event was jointly organized by ActivSpaces, a tech hub that provides resources, mentorship and financing to technology startups, and Cameroon Angels Network (CAN), the first network of angel investors in Cameroon. According to the organizers, the goal of the event was to help startups in Cameroon jumpstart their efforts, get to market, make sales, and attract further investment.

Cameroon Bloggers Launch #StopBokoHaram Campaign

Cameroonian bloggers working under the banner of the Cameroon Bloggers Association have launched a campaign to mobilize the Cameroonian public around the urgency of defeating the Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram. The goal of the campaign is threefold: highlight the threat posed by the terrorist group in Cameroon, show support for Cameroonian troops who have so far held back the Boko Haram onslaught, and express solidarity with the people of the North region who have been hardest hit by Boko Haram.

The first part of the campaign will be primarily online and begins today, January 19, 2015, with bloggers publishing articles on various aspects of the fight against Hoko Haram and encouraging Cameroonians on social media to replace their Twitter profile pictures and Facebook cover and profile pictures with special banners and buttons specifically created for the campaign. The campaign organizers also hope to engage a worldwide audience on twitter using the #StopBokoHaram hashtag.

The second phase of the campaign will include activities on the ground in Cameroon.

To download banner, click on image below for a full size pop-up, then right click on pop-up image.

Le Collectif des Blogueurs Camerounais lançe la campagne ‪#‎StopBokoHaram

Face aux actions terroristes de Boko Haram qui meurtrissent l'Extrême-nord du Cameroun, le Collectif des Blogueurs Camerounais a décidé de répondre en lançant la campagne ‪#‎StopBokoHaram‬ sur le thème: Jaloux de notre Liberté.

Cette campagne de soutien aux soldats de l'armée camerounaise qui défendent notre pays face à ces assaillants et aux populations de cette partie du territoire durement touchées par les exactions de la secte islamiste se déroulera en deux étapes.

La première sera déployée sur internet et sera relayée via le hashtag #StopBokoHaram. Les blogs, sites web et réseaux sociaux seront impliqués. Cette campagne sur le web sera lancée ce lundi 19 janvier 2015.

La deuxième étape sera un rassemblement physique qui se tiendra à Yaoundé. Nous sommes encore dans l'attente des autorisations nécessaires.

Des visuels ont été mis à la disposition de tous et seront ceux utilisés tout au long de cette campagne. Vous pouvez dès maintenant les utiliser sur vos divers réseaux sociaux ou pour illustrer vos articles.

Ensemble, nous pouvons bouter les terroristes hors de nos frontières!!!

Le CBC sur Twitter: @BloggersCM

NB: cette campagne du Collectif des Blogueurs Camerounais, comme toutes les autres que nous menons, est purement citoyenne. Nous nous désolidarisons de toute tentative de récupération politique qui pourrait en être faite.

«DIGITAL OCEAN» : La sixième édition du Barcamp Cameroon se tient à Kribi

La sixième édition du Barcamp Cameroon qui se tient ce samedi 06 Décembre au CENAJES de Kribi. Sous le thème « Digital Ocean », cette rencontre des acteurs du secteur des Technologies de l’Information et de la Communication met l'accent sur les dernières innovations en matière d'applications Internet, de logiciels libres et de réseaux sociaux. Le Barcamp Cameroon se tiendra ainsi autour de quatre ateliers principaux : Digital Tourism & web 3.0, Coding session, ICT4D et Free topics. Les inscriptions et les sujets de présentation sont libres et gratuits et se font ici.

CONTEXTE
A l’ère du web 3.0voire du 4.0, le monde entier est plongé dans ce que l’on appelle couramment le DIGITAL. Concrètement, les années 2010 représentent la période de l’évolution d’Internet où tout est basé sur les supports, les applications et les services de plus en plus libre technologiquement. Ce qui implique désormais que c’est l’ère du web intelligent, par conséquent, l’ère du web sémantique. Le Cameroun n’évoluant pas hors des considérations mondiales, se trouve de plein pied engagé dans ce web 3.0.

The Making of Information Age: Cameroon Mobile Phone Call Box

Discover how mobile phones have transformed the lives of people in Cameroon and how the Science Museum brought these stories to life in the Information Age gallery.

In March 2012 a small team travelled from the Science Museum to Cameroon with the aim of collecting stories and objects for display in the Information Age gallery. Bringing a small piece of Cameroon life to South Kensington was a complex and fascinating process, unlike anything the museum had done before. Working closely with people in Cameroon and a group of London-based Cameroonians, the team developed a new way to interpret and present these stories.

 

For more details on this project, see Mobile Phones and Cameroon.

Digital Exclusion: Four Barriers to Mobile Internet Adoption

An excerpt from GSM Association, Digital Inclusion Report 2014:

Network Infrastructure and Policy

Network coverage is critical for access to the mobile internet. Mobile operators covered 85% of the global population with 2G and 55% with 3G mobile signal. The economic case for mobile operators to expand networks into remote, rural areas is challenging because of the cost of maintaining and powering cell towers in remote, off-grid locations, combined with lower revenues expected from thinly spread, low income populations. Industry solutions to address this barrier include infrastructure sharing and use of renewable energy for powering off-grid cell towers. Government policies can also support increased network coverage including timely release of low frequency spectrum, supporting voluntary network sharing and providing public subsidies for networks.

Cameroon's New Telephone Numbering Scheme will Increase Available Numbers from 80 to 800 million

Beginning on November 21, 2014, Cameroon's telephone system will have a new numbering scheme. According to the new plan recently adopted by the country's Telecommunications Regulatory Board (TRB), telephone numbers will migrate from 8 to 9 digits. The current 8-digit phone numbers will be expanded by prepending a digit according to the carrier; the number 2 will be prepended to numbers issued by mobile telephone operators while the number 6 will be prepended to numbers from CAMTEL, the incumbent telecom operator.

This is the third change in the country's phone numbering since 2000. In 2001, phone digits increased from 6 to 7 thereby increasing available telephony numbers from 800,000 to 8 million. The next increase from 7 to 8 digits was in 2007. It increased available telephony numbers to 80 million. The new numbering scheme which goes into effect in November will increase available numbers tenfold to 800 million.

According to Camtel,

"Apart from phones and modems, the new plan will be extended to utility equipment like water and electricity meters in order to enable subscribers better manage their consumptions. The change to the new numbering scheme is free and requires no extra effort. All consumers need to do is to add the digit 2 infront of their numbers."

Cameroon currently has over 16 million mobile subscribers and 220,000 land line users.

[Just Published] African Studies in the Digital Age: DisConnects?

Barringer, Terry, and Marion Wallace. (eds). 2014. African studies in the digital age: DisConnects? Boston: Brill, 2014. 262 pp. Available on Amazon.com.

African Studies in the Digital Age. DisConnects? seeks to understand the complex changes brought about by the digital revolution. The editors, Terry Barringer and Marion Wallace, have brought together librarians, archivists, researchers and academics from three continents to analyse the creation and use of digital research resources and archives in and about Africa. The volume reveals new opportunities for research, teaching and access, as well as potential problems and digital divides. Published under the aegis of SCOLMA (the UK Libraries and Archives Group on Africa), this new work is a major step forward in understanding the impact of the Internet Age for the study of Africa, in and beyond the continent.

Contributors are: Terry Barringer, Hartmut Bergenthum, Natalie Bond, Mirjam de Bruijn, Ian Cooke, Jos Damen, Jonathan Harle, Diana Jeater, Rebecca Kahn, Peter Limb, Lucia Lovison-Golob, Walter Gam Nkwi, Jenni Orme, Daniel A. Reboussin, Ashley Rockenbach, Amidu Sanni, Simon Tanner, Edgar C. Taylor, Laurie N. Taylor, Marion Wallace, Massimo Zaccaria.

[Video] "Revisiting We the Media, Grassroots Journalism for the People by the People" - Highway Africa 2014 Keynote Address by Dan Gillmore

Here is Dan Gillmore's keynote address at the 18th annual Highway Africa conference which took place from 7-8 September at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa. Gillmore's keynote address, "Revisiting We the Media, Grassroots Journalism for the People by the People (2004)", was bassed on his seminal book on citizen journalism, “We the Media” which was published in 2004. [Keynote begins at 44:00 mins., followed by a panel discussion]

The theme of this year's Highway Africa conference was "Social Media – from the margins to the mainstream." Conference program (pdf)

 

The African Declaration on Internet Rights & Freedoms Launched at the Internet Governance Forum in Turkey

The African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms was officially launched yesterday, September 4 at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Istanbul, Turkey. According to its sponsors, the declaration is a Pan-African initiative to promote human rights standards and principles of openness in internet policy formulation and implementation on the continent. The Declaration is intended to elaborate on the principles which are necessary to uphold human and people’s rights on the internet, and to cultivate an internet environment that can best meet Africa’s social and economic development needs and goals.

The declaration will be launched in Africa on September 8 at Highway Africa Conference in Grahamstown, South Africa.

Here is the declaration in its entirety:

[Book] Digital Revolutions: Activism in the Internet Age

Hill, Symon. 2013. Digital Revolutions: Activism in the Internet Age. Oxford (UK): New Internationalist Publications, 160 pages. Available on amazon.com.

From Occupy to Uncut, from the Arab Spring to the Slutwalk movement, few questions about recent activism raise as much controversy as the role of the internet. This book suggests that the internet is a tool, not a cause, of social change. It has profoundly affected the way people communicate, making it easier to find the truth, to learn from activists on the other side of the world, to co-ordinate campaigns without hierarchy and to expose governments and corporations to public ridicule. But it has also helped those same governments and corporations to spy on activists, to disrupt campaigns and to create illusions of popular support.

Focused on the real-life experiences of activists rather than theory or abstract statistics, Digital Revolutions asks how the internet has affected activism, how it has allowed movements to go global more quickly and what the future holds for corporations and social movements that are doing battle online.

Cameroon: How Protectionism and Monopolies are Impeding the Growth of Broadband Services

Why is Cameroon trailing other African countries with regards to Broadband access and cost? What can be done to turn the tide? A response by Research ICT Africa:

Poor policy decisions in Cameroon have impeded the growth of affordable, real broadband services that are taking off in many of the continent’s leading economies. Although the introduction of bundled products by Orange Cameroon has significantly reduced the price for mobile prepaid services, the country lags behind its African peers in the deployment of 3G services due to protectionist policies and weak regulatory environment. ADSL services are offered at exorbitant prices and at virtually narrowband speeds, way below the levels reached by the other African countries analysed in the Research ICT Africa Broadband Value for Money Index.

Click here to read policy brief by Reaserch ICT Africa.

eLearning Africa 2014 - Opening Frontiers to the Future

eLearning Africa 2014 will take place in Kampala, Uganda from the 28th -- 30th May. Renowned for its vibrant, stimulating atmosphere, eLearning Africa will surely be the place to discuss the exciting future of Africa.

 

#BringBackOurGirls: Anatomy of a Social Media Campaign

A timelapse map of how the #BringBackOurGirls hashtag went viral...

 

Cameroon: 3G Launch Delayed While First LTE Network Rolls Out

MarketResearchReports has released its annual report on trends and developments in Cameroon’s telecommunications market.

Lewes, DE -- (SBWIRE) Cameroon is one of only a few countries in Africa left with only two competing mobile operators, MTN and Orange. After various delays, Vietnam's Viettel is expected to launch the third network in September 2014, including the country's first 3G mobile service. The re-entry into the mobile market by fixed-line incumbent Camtel has been delayed by controversy regarding its licence. In the meantime, a wireless ISP is rolling out Cameroon's first 4G/LTE network.

The result of the restrictive market structure has been a mobile market penetration rate below the African average and also below that of other countries with similar GDP per capita levels. Fixed-line penetration is extremely low, and the privatisation of Camtel's fixed-line business has failed several times.

Florian Ngimbis: Certains blogueurs camerounais sont en passe de devenir de vrais leaders d’opinion

Bien que méconnue, la blogosphère camerounaise est source d'informations cruciales durant cette période mouvementée au Cameroun. Dibussi Tande a échangé avec Florian Ngimbis, président du collectif des blogueurs camerounais (CBC) et lauréat en 2012 du Meilleur Blog Francophone lors des Best of the Blogs Awards (the BOBs) pour un état des lieux de la blogosphère locale et notamment, le bilinguisme au Cameroun.

Global Voices: Pour commencer, dressez nous un autoportrait de votre blog Kamer kongossa.

Florian Ngimbis (FN): Kamer kongossa est un blog que j’ai ouvert en 2008. Il s’agit de textes courts, écrits de façon imagée et humoristique qui tout en me mettant en scène dans des histoires plus ou moins hilarantes, jette un regard critique sur la société dans laquelle je vis.

«Kamer kongossa» demeure l’un des blogs les plus populaires de l’espace francophone africain aujourd’hui. Quel est le secret de votre succès ?

FN: Si succès il y a, je dirais qu’il est dû au fait que je n’invente rien. La plupart de mes histoires mettent en scène des gens, des situations que la majorité des camerounais ont vécu. Je fais juste un effort d’écriture pour rendre le tout concis et digeste, une grosse pincée d’humour et ça passe.

Selon RFI, vous êtes un blogueur qui « dépeint au vitriol mais avec humour le Cameroun » et selon Deutsche Welle vous écrivez des « chroniques acerbes » qui dénoncent le régime en place au Cameroun. Florian Ngimbis se considère-t-il comme un blogueur engagé ?

Friedrich Ebert Foundation Publishes Report on Use of Social Media in Cameroon

Source: Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation

Social media are on the rise, worldwide as well as in parts of Africa, serving as tools and platforms that help to shape political debates, spread ideas and serve as a tool to mobilize followers. But what about Cameroon? To what extent, for what purposes and by whom are social media like Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, Linkedin, etc. used in the country? To find answers to these questions, the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation has commissioned a research report on the use of social media in Cameroon.

Largely corroborated in a workshop that was held at FES in Yaoundé on 12 March, and which included some of Cameroon’s best known and most dynamic social media activists, show first of all that Internet access remains a challenge in Cameroon. Compared to neighbouring countries like Nigeria, Equatorial-Guinea or Gabon, Internet penetration, uneven access, and slow speeds are important obstacles, while financial costs appear to be average and relatively moderate. However, the rise of mobile phone subscriptions (a 25% rise over the past 5 years) has partly made up for these constraints, as more and more users access the Internet via mobile phones.

"Digital Colonialism": The Invisibility of Africa on the Internet

This presentation by Firoze Manji, made at the Workshop on Discoverability of African Scholarship Online in Nairobi, Kenya, looks at the political and infrastructural reasons for the lack of discoverability of research in Africa.

Discoverability and digital colonialism: the invisibility of Africa on the internet from Firoze Manji

Highlights

• The whole continent of Africa contains only about 2.6% of the world’s geo-tagged Wikipedia articles despite having 14% of the world’s population and 20% of the world’s land.
• Africa has more than 800 languages spoken amongst its various ethnic groups. However, the Internet is an ‘English’ based medium which affects the usability and content creation thereon. A vast majority of programs, applications and services continue to be provided in English thereby denying access to large swathes of the population and exacerbating the digital divide.
• Africa has more countries than any other continent, but only 10 of the ccTLDs have functional registries within the African countries they belong to.
• Nigeria imports 90% of all software used in the country. The local production of software is reduced to add-ons or extensions creation for mainstream packaged software.
• Only around 10% of applications for the registration of intellectual property (IP) rights in Africa are made by African citizens or residents.

Google Developer Group (GDG) Cameroon Holds Annual Event on IT Innovation

G Days Cameroon Innovative Open Ideas 14
Date: 01-02 March 2014 (Douala)
Theme: “Innovative Open Ideas on AFRICA IT Innovation”

Google Developer Group Cameroon (a set of seven Google Developers Groups based in Bamenda, Bandjoun, Buea, Douala, Dschang, Ngaoundéré and Yaoundé) will hold a two-day event in Douala, beginning tomorrow, titled "G Days Cameroon Innovative Open Ideas 14" under the theme “Innovative Open Ideas on AFRICA IT Innovation”.

The aim of this annual event is to serve as a platform for Technological Innovation in the Cameroon IT Ecosystem, boost student creativity and empower business capacity. The first edition which took place in February 2013  focused on ways through which developers, universities and businesses could collaborate to come up with innovative solutions to local problems using available technologies under the constraints of the local market place.

The G DAYS Cameroon IOI 14 will follow the model but there will be an additional focus on secondary and high school education, women in technology, and business efficiency.

G-Day is a series of large-scale events held by Google in Latin America, Middle East, Africa, and India for developers, tech enthusiasts, and entrepreneurs started as a part of the G-Africa Initiative. These events typically last for two days, split into the developer day (for developers and technologists) and the business day (for entrepreneurs) with the aim of showing them how to leverage Google tools in taking advantage of the opportunities offered by the Internet and mobile.

Google Developer Groups (GDGs) are for developers who are interested in Google's developer technology. There are GDGs in 97 countries.

Click here for conference agenda.

Click here for conference presentation document.

Click here for the Cameroon GDG IOI 14 website.

Cameroon: Online Comic Strip Prepares Print Edition after Successful Crowdfunding Campaign

Dibussi Tande

La Vie d'Ebène Duta (LVDD), a popular online comic strip created by Elyons, a Belgium-based Cameroonian graphic artist and illustrator, will now have a print edition following a successful online crowdfunding campaign. LVDD debuted on Facebook in 2011 and is one of the most popular African comic strips on that platform with over 15,000 followers. It is about the travails of an African girl living in Europe. The author describes the series as follows:

Take a spoonful of misfortunes, add to it a pinch of misunderstandings, stir and mix in half a liter of being broke. Heat it up and you have the life of Ebène Duta, the daily lot of a black girl living abroad.

In 2013, the author of LVDD decided to create a print version and turned to crowdfunding.

Today is World Radio Day

UNESCO’s Executive Board recommended to the General Conference the proclamation of World Radio Day, on the basis of a feasibility study undertaken by UNESCO, further to a proposal from Spain.


Radio is the mass media reaching the widest audience in the world. It is also recognized as a powerful communication tool and a low cost medium. Radio is specifically suited to reach remote communities and vulnerable people: the illiterate, the disabled, women, youth and the poor, while offering a platform to intervene in the public debate, irrespective of people’s educational level. Furthermore, radio has a strong and specific role in emergency communication and disaster relief.

There is also a changing face to radio services which, in the present times of media convergence, are taking up new technological forms, such as broadband, mobiles and tablets. However, it is said that up to a billion people still do not have access to radio today.

UNESCO’s General Conference, at its 36th session, proclaimed World Radio Day on 13 February, the day the United Nations radio was established in 1946

The objectives of the Day will be to raise greater awareness among the public and the media of the importance of radio; to encourage decision makers to establish and provide access to information through radio; as well as to enhance networking and international cooperation among broadcasters.

 

A Tribute to Radio by Rhodes Journalism Review

The first issue of  RJRAlive, the new online publication of Rhodes Journalism Review, pays a glowing tribute to the Radio, that "resilient medium" which has stood the test of time and held its own against newer communication technologies. This maiden issue features "an array of stories from across the continent and from those for whom radio still continues to matter regardless of how free their politics or how sophisticated their technology."

Here are some choice excerpts:

Living in exile far away from home can take a toll on one’s well-being. Just ask the refugees of Darfur living in harsh and dire conditions in eastern Chad. But, if you at least have a radio that broadcasts news, music and weather reports, and debates current affairs, survival doesn’t seem so far off....

Digital didn't kill the Radio star; Shortwave and satellite help radio reign supreme. Radio threatens many of Africa’s big men. Thugs working for Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe have recently been confiscating and destroying receivers. Eritrea’s President Isaias Afewerki stopped issuing import licenses. Other iron-fisted rulers such as Swaziland’s King Mswati III and Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir rarely hand out frequencies, thus reducing the range of independent radio....

The actions taken by these big men merely confirm radio’s supremacy in Africa. It may be old technology, but it is still relevant and appropriate. While not everybody owns a radio, most people have access to one.

Click here to read or download the first issue of RJRA (pdf).

Bonus: Click here for issue no. 33 of Rhodes Journalism Review (Sept. 2013).

Achieving Africa's Digital Migration - DBSF Africa 2014, Arusha Tanzania

Digital Broadcasting Switchover Forum Africa
Date: 11-14 February 2014
Location: Arusha, Tanzania

 

Digital Broadcasting Switchover Forum Africa is one of the most prestigious events on digital broadcasting. It provides a unique and authoritative annual meeting point for policymakers and regulators to interact with broadcasters, content developers, broadcast network infrastructure providers and operators, equipment manufacturers and opinion leaders to discuss challenges, solutions and opportunities in the ever more fragmented, competitive and innovative broadcasting industry.

Digital Broadcasting Switchover Forum Africa 2014 is being hosted by the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) and the Ministry of Communication, Science and Technology, Tanzania.

Click here for details about the Digital Broadcasting Switchover Forum Africa 2014.

Fibre optique: Comprendre la situation de monopole au Cameroun

Source: Le Messager (Douala, Cameroun)

Selon Russell Southwood, expert indépendant spécialisé de l’Afrique sur la question de la fibre optique, la concurrence entre les fournisseurs d’infrastructures de télécommunications reposant sur la fibre optique dans de nombreuses régions d'Afrique sub-saharienne a entraîné la baisse des prix de gros qui, à son tour, a favorisé la baisse des prix de détail. Ce qui, de son analyse n’est pas le cas au Cameroun.

Russell Southwood est le Dg de Balancing Act, une société d’études et de conseil spécialisée dans les télécommunications, l’Internet et la diffusion en Afrique. A propos de la fibre optique, il pense que le Cameroun qui a refusé le financement de la Banque mondiale parce que ce financement aurait entraîné la création d’un consortium de gros distinct offrant des prix compétitifs, montre à l’Afrique un exemple de ce qu’il ne faut pas faire.

Barcamp Cameroon Mini Summit on Information & Internet Access

The Social Innovation Lab for Development, in partnership with Internet Without Borders, the Anti-Corruption Organization and Citizen Governance Initiative, will organize a mini Barcamp on February 7, 2014 in Yaounde on the theme "Access to information & Access to Internet.”

Access to information in Cameroon faces several obstacles some of which are: language barriers, poor information quality, if not its absence, and Internet access. Although Internet should be a privileged space for citizens to inform and interact with rulers, the cost of internet access is one of the major obstacles to access to information: it is about 25,000 CFA francs per month (about €39), while the minimum wage is 28,000 CFA francs (about €43).

The Aim of the Mini Barcamp 2014
The Mini Barcamp scheduled for February 7, 2014 will be an opportunity to initiate discussions and actions on how to ameliorate the public’s access to information in Cameroon. The aim is to bring together computer experts and Cameroonian technophiles who wish to participate and contribute to making public data and large volume of information on Cameroon clear and intelligible through visualization tools. Emphasis will also be placed on the security of personal data that each Internet user leaves on the web while browsing without necessarily knowing.
To promote better access to these data, it is necessary to have a good internet connection at affordable prices. Barcamp offers the opportunity to analyze possible solutions that will enable all Cameroonians to enjoy high speed Internet at low prices.

MTN Cameroon CEO: "We are Limited by the Regulatory Environment in Cameroon"

Yesterday, the CEO of MTN Cameroon, Karl Toriola, hosted the first ever MTN Cameroon Google Hangout during which he answered a series of questions from Internet users on issues ranging from the absence of an MTN 3G network in Cameroon, the regulatory limitations that prevent the  use of the WACS undersea cable and deployment of a broadband network across the country, MTN's plans for Mobile Money and e-commerce solutions, high voice and internet prices, among others.

 
The MTN CEO talked extensively about the regulatory limitations preventing MTN from offering many of the services (3G, broadband, etc.) that it offers in other countries. Here are some choice excerpts:

On the absence of an MTN 3G network in Cameroon