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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...

What Should First Thursday Aim to Do?

Submitted by vijay on 18 March 2010 - 6:06am

Hi Pam, It feels good to be back on Dadamac after a long time. The other day, you asked me about my views on the latest First Thursday, in which I tried to participate but could not do much. And I wrote the reason for that in a recent blog comment. Here goes: "For one, I was having a problem with the Net connection on the First Thursday. And also, to be frank, I just could not connect with the agenda. I felt like a total stranger, groping in the dark. This is not to belittle the thought and efforts...

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...

Africa on the Rebound

Submitted by vijay on 16 March 2010 - 7:12am

Hi Pam, Hope all of you are doing fine. It has been a long, long time. I have been quite busy with my work. Here is something that might be on interest to Dadamac readers. It is an infographic from the Economist magazine which says that sub-Saharan Africa's economy is forecast to grow overall by 4.5% this year. In comparison, economies of countries south of the Sahara together grew by less than 2% in 2009. As much as the infographic, it is interesting to read the comments by readers on what this news would mean for Africa. While some have...

Education In Rural Nigeria

Submitted by nikki on 12 March 2010 - 6:52pm

During the course of Wednesday's UK-Nigeria meeting, we found ourselves contemplating the realities of education at Fantsuam. For that was among the traditionally vast range of topics covered in a session which also spanned everything from Sickle Cell Disease to Mozzi-Mort ! It was interesting to learn that students at Fantsuam are being introduced to Twitter on the diploma course. However, concern was naturally raised that, once they leave the academy, they either competely lose internet access or can - at best - expect very limited online opportunities. John consulted the team and, as ever, a possible solution was suggested...

Open Source in Rural Nigeria

Submitted by nikki on 5 March 2010 - 11:59pm

The crucial topic of open source software proved the highlight of Wednesday's weekly online UK-Nigeria meeting. Interestingly, the UK side were informed that Linux is a key part of the curriculum on the 'IT Essentials' Cisco course, run by Fantsuam staff. It was explained to us that the first approach is to introduce the students to the basic concept of open source. Kelechi told us that part of the students' installation module includes installing Linux as well as Windows. We also learned from John, a trainer, that most of Fantsuam's students are very familiar with Ubuntu. We were extremely interested...

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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