This is an archive of the Dadamac.net website, as it was in 2015, it is no longer being updated.

Pamela's Blog

Google Alert and Sectarian Violence

Submitted by Pamela on 23 March 2010 - 1:16am
Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic. I follow our sister organisation Fantsuam Foundation and have just read an alert directing me to an article by John Dada in APC News The article is GEM in Hard Times: Sectarian violence in Nigeria can be beaten (GEM is Gender Evaluation Methodology ) Violence and the status of women In the article John responds to the sectarian violence in Jos (the nearest city to Fantsuam) viewing it "through the prism of the expression of disdain, hostility and...

Connecting with Community Informatics

Submitted by Pamela on 21 March 2010 - 9:56pm
I was delighted today to read Mike Gurstein's blog Thoughts on Research as an Element in Telecentre Community Informatics Practice and so I commented on it. I was encouraged because I am always looking for opportunites to close the gaps between academics and practitioners - and he is keen to do that too. Genuine collaboration In his blog Mike Gurstein writes about Community Informatics research and makes a plea for researchers to link more closely with practitioners in a genuinely collaborative way. He points out that they should recognising the value of local knowledge and networks in academic research -...

Starting a new Dadamac OK project - SCD with People's Uni

Submitted by Pamela on 19 March 2010 - 5:29pm
Dadamac and People's Uni have joined forces to develop a Sickle Cell Disease course. This is coming about in typical Dadamac "responding to need" fashion. The description below serves two purposes. It introduces the way things happen in Dadamac. It provides possible collaborators with an idea of where we are now and the steps we are taking. First steps There is a need (in this instance the need is to provide support for Sickle Cell Disease sufferers in and around Fantsuam) Someone in Dadamac wants to do something about it (in Nigeria John Dada wants to respond by running a...

Starting a new Dadamac OK project - SCD with People's Uni

Submitted by Pamela on 19 March 2010 - 5:29pm
Dadamac and People's Uni have joined forces to develop a Sickle Cell Disease course. This is coming about in typical Dadamac "responding to need" fashion. The description below serves two purposes. It introduces the way things happen in Dadamac. It provides possible collaborators with an idea of where we are now and the steps we are taking. First steps There is a need (in this instance the need is to provide support for Sickle Cell Disease sufferers in and around Fantsuam) Someone in Dadamac wants to do something about it (in Nigeria John Dada wants to respond by running a...

First Thursday - aims and practicalities

Submitted by Pamela on 18 March 2010 - 8:17am
Hi Vijay Welcome back. Thanks for your helpful feedback on your First Thursday experience. You raise many good points and I would like to address them all very seriously. I suggest that we take our time to explore them all in more detail, so in this post I will give an overall response and suggest some structure for our discussions. It seems we are in overall agreement: First Thursday has great potential There are still serious glitches to be overcome We need to clarify the aims We need to tackle the glitches Our emphasis should be about caring to find...

A typical day in Dadamac

Submitted by Pamela on 17 March 2010 - 8:34am
It's 7.45 am here in the UK so I'm a bit earlier that usual starting work, and thinking it might be interesting to make notes through the day. A "water cooler" moment. So far I've read a blog comment that Vijay wrote and responded to it. Then I went to check my emails. The chat box was open. It had a one-line message from Vijay - so I wrote a line back and he wrote one to me, and then we both went back to our tasks. it's the virtual equivalent of a smile and a wave, or a momentary...

Blogs I haven't written

Submitted by Pamela on 16 March 2010 - 1:37pm
You may have been directed to this blog because I want to give you background to an ongoing story. Well the truth is that I may not have written it yet. I'm trying to exchange a vicious circle for a virtuous one. In the vicious circle - here and now - I need to refer people (like you perhaps) to previous events or ideas that I haven't actually blogged about. In the virtuous circle every unfolding story is readily to hand (including the one specially for you). Hmm - How to make the flip over? The ideal solution My friend...

Development-trade-aid-permaculture-power generation

Submitted by Pamela on 4 March 2010 - 10:59pm
I'm covering two events - First the GlobalNet 21 Meet-up called " The Path To Development -Trade or Aid " (yesterday evening) and secondly the March First Thursday meeting (this afternoon) which predictably did not go as planned - but was a great session involving people from three continents, eight countries and a confusing number of time zones. First Thursday was supposed to last for "about an hour' - on permaculture (especially kitchen gardens and jatropha), but went on longer, and then turned into to Special Interest Group, on Skype, about appropriate power. We started at 12.00 noon (London time)...

PeoplesUni.org enrolling for 2010

Submitted by Pamela on 2 March 2010 - 11:46pm
The Peoples Open Access Education Initiative: Peoples-uni continues to go from strength to strength. It is now open for enrollments for the first semester 2010. It is offering 12 courses, including a new one, and one offered in two additional languages. Dadamac is proud to have been associated with People's Uni from its very earliest days . Professor Dick Heller (Coordinator of the Peoples-uni) has asked us to share the following information: This is to tell you that we are now open for enrolments for the first semester 2010. We have 12 course modules, including one new 'Public Health Nutrition'...

British African Federation (February Meeting)

Submitted by Pamela on 26 February 2010 - 11:44pm
Yesterday, after John Iruaga had finished his Twitter learning session , I went out to the February networking event of the British African Federation (BAF). Topics included:investments; Business Safari Missions; low-cost migrant remittances, micro-finance, micro-savings and currency exchange; business match-making and mentoring; a new weapon against mosquitos (and cockroaches); tractors and a trade mission. As a result there are introductions to make and activities I would like to see happen. BAF David Smith (BAF chairman) started off by reviewing the objectives of the British African Federation. It is still a very young organsiation so I can't direct you to a...

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