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From Technology in Tunis...to a Wireless WSIS (35 unread)

• March 02, 2010
• 16:40

  Have You Tried Google Buzz?

   » ‎ From Technology in Tunis...to a Wireless WSIS
  br clear="all"brIf not, get a-buzzing. The web is now replete with more articles on Buzz than you can shake a stick at. There are a couple of Buzz-related sites that might be of interest to you. Try these here:brbr ullia href="http://www.gonebuzz.com" target="_blank"Gonebuzz/a -- find people you would like to join on Google Buzz on this link/lilia href="http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2007/12/google-profiles.html" target="_blank"Google Profiles/a -- create your comprehensive link on Google profile here. Useful to add ALL your links/li lia href="http://Buzzzy.com" target="_blank"Buzzzy.com/a -- search for Buzz posts, though you can already search ireal-time/i on this blog (to the right-hand side of the page)/li/ulThere#39;s an insightful article from a href="http://thenews.choate.edu/index.php?option=com_contentamp;view=articleamp;id=106:the-buzz-on-google-a-technological-beehiveamp;catid=14:featuresamp;Itemid=4" target="_blank"here/a, which I am going to copy below here. I think it captures the basics and essentials of what to find in Google Buzz. Enjoy!br br================brtabletbodytr valign="top"tdtabletbodytrtd width="100%"a href="http://thenews.choate.edu/index.php?option=com_contentamp;view=articleamp;id=106:the-buzz-on-google-a-technological-beehiveamp;catid=14:featuresamp;Itemid=4" target="_blank"The Buzz on Google: A Technological Beehive/a /td td align="right" width="100%" a href="http://thenews.choate.edu/index.php?view=articleamp;catid=14%3Afeaturesamp;id=106%3Athe-buzz-on-google-a-technological-beehiveamp;format=pdfamp;option=com_contentamp;Itemid=4" title="PDF" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"img src="http://thenews.choate.edu/images/M_images/pdf_button.png" alt="PDF"/a /td td align="right" width="100%" a href="http://thenews.choate.edu/index.php?view=articleamp;catid=14%3Afeaturesamp;id=106%3Athe-buzz-on-google-a-technological-beehiveamp;tmpl=componentamp;print=1amp;layout=defaultamp;page=amp;option=com_contentamp;Itemid=4" title="Print" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"img src="http://thenews.choate.edu/images/M_images/printButton.png" alt="Print"/a /td /tr /tbody/table table tbodytr td span Features /span /td /tr tr td valign="top" span By Jack Chen #39;13 /span    /td /tr tr td valign="top" Monday, 01 March 2010 18:32 /td /tr tr td valign="top" div style="width: 144px;"img src="http://thenews.choate.edu/images/stories/google-buzz3-contributed.jpg" title="The Google Buzz logo." border="0"pThe Google Buzz logo./p/div pJust a couple of weeks ago, Google released Buzz, a social networking tool integrated into its e-mail service, Gmail. Google Buzz, designed to complement existing web services, merges features from both Twitter and Facebook, allowing users to communicate with each other not only through text but also images and video. Like subscribing to Twitter feeds, Buzz users can choose contacts to "follow". Buzz also offers a commenting and "like" system similar to Facebook's. Google Account holders can access Buzz through their Gmail inboxes; at the moment, the iPhone, Symbian, Windows Mobile, the BlackBerry OS and phones running Android partially support Buzz as well./p p Instead of competing against popular sites that already have tens and hundreds of millions of users, Google Buzz aims to integrate them all into a seamless experience. Buzz is already fully compatible with Twitter, Flickr, Picasa, YouTube, Google Chat and Google Reader, in addition to Gmail, of course. For example, one could set Google to import tweets and automatically send them out to Buzz followers. Although Buzz currently isn't compatible with Facebook, Google has ambitions to expand on that direction./ppbr"We want to make sure that we do have the most open, well integrated, well behaving social network in the industry," Mr. Bradley Horowitz, Google's vice president of product management told eWeek. Other Buzz features that appeal to users include the generous unlimited-character and multiple full-size image attachments allowed, a non-existent setup process (all details are directly imported from Gmail), and the automatic process whereby Buzz pre-selects one's followers and followed based on regularity of emails/chats./ppbrBuzz joins Google Wave and Orkut in Google's attempt to diversify from advertising, which makes up for over ninety five percent of Google's revenue. Orkut is relatively unknown in the United States but has proved surprisingly popular in India and Brazil, while Wave is slowly being rolled out on an invite-only basis, similar to how Gmail was released in 2004. "Wave is on the Gmail path, and it's probably going to grow as Gmail did," said Joe Entenman '11. "With Buzz, I think it's a little harder to say. It'll either be an instant success or a complete flop."/ppbrWithin hours of Buzz's release, however, the entire web was flooded with complaints about privacy issues. Google engineers swiftly set out to solve the problems, staying overnight at Google headquarters in Mountain View, California. "I've been impressed with how quickly Google has responded to complaints," said Entenman. "It's good that they're listening to what users are saying and making changes in response."/ppbrNonetheless, some of the original problems still persist. The main concern users had was with the default setting, in which a list of the full names of a user's most-contacted Gmail Contacts is publicly displayed on that user's Google profile. Another problem is specific to the mobile version of Google Buzz. When users post from their cell phones, their precise location – street number, street name, city, and state – is revealed online.brWhile these privacy issues are likely to be fixed in the coming weeks, Google Buzz is facing a backlash of bad publicity and legal violations. A Harvard Law School student has filed a class-action lawsuit and the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) has registered a formal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), both about Google's privacy management./ppLuckily for Google, all of the publicity--regardless of whether it's positive or negative--about Buzz has prompted many to try the service out for themselves. Just two days after its release, nearly ten million posts and comments had been logged, with over two hundred posts per minute from cell phones. When the various concerns are finally resolved, Buzz has potential to become the new social-networking hub. "A lot of people already use Buzz because of Gmail," said Panat Taranat '13, who finds Buzz useful for communicating with friends and family. "The interface is great; it brings the simplicity of Twitter together with the [many] things you can do [on] Facebook."/p/td /tr /tbody/table span /span /td td /td td width="170" div h3Ads by Google/h3 ins style="display: inline-table; border: medium none; min-height: 600px; margin: 0pt; padding: 0pt; width: 160px;"ins style="display: block; border: medium none; min-height: 600px; margin: 0pt; padding: 0pt; width: 160px;"/ins/ins /div /td /tr /tbody/table div div /div /div div div div p /p p Copyright 2009-2010, The News, Choate Rosemary H/p/div/div/divbr div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24894530-3107193815843435576?l=twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• 14:54

  Testing from Mail2blogger

   » ‎ From Technology in Tunis...to a Wireless WSIS
  If I can see this, then I'm alive!brbr_________________________brfont style="font-size: 8pt;"E.K.Bensah IIbrAccra Photos: [accradailyphoto.combrJoin] me on [www.ekbensah.net!brTEL:+233.208.891.841] _______________________________________________________br Unlimited Disk, Data Transfer, PHP/MySQL Domain Hostingbr a href="http://www.doteasy.com"http://www.doteasy.com/adiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24894530-5343125050595654079?l=twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• February 10, 2010
• 16:52

  How Vodafone's Voodoo Crunched My Credit!

   » ‎ From Technology in Tunis...to a Wireless WSIS
  Two days ago, I was more than a poster-child for disappointment as I was unable to send my paltry 0.30gp/0.40gp/0.50gp to myself and a friend--just because Vodafone Ghana had not told me that they were working on their transfer credit function.br /br /My friend asked me for a transfer today and I lamented how Vodafone had gone and done voodoo with my credit, wanting me to transfer in denominations of 1ghC! br /br /Well, mystery over: I just got off the toll-free line (in Ghana 101), which is actually that for Broadband services as the 011 was not working, and was duly informed that they will complete work on the 12th!br /br /Here was me thinking that I had gone the way of the fool in believing that they would hold onto some of the gems of the erstwhile Ghana Telecom, such as Live SMS (113) and the famous credit transfer. br /br /Well, looks like they have, but I did suggest next time they better inform us--not just on the radio, which quite a number listen only for a limited time!br /br /By the way, GOOGLE BUZZ is all the rage. Need to spread the word on Google's latest Social networking site. Wonder when Yahoo and/or MSN will follow suit!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24894530-4082993533746369663?l=twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• December 11, 2009
• 12:49

  The Bonfire of TELCO Vanities

   » ‎ From Technology in Tunis...to a Wireless WSIS
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mso-level-tab-stop:none; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-.25in; font-family:"Courier New";} @list l0:level9 {mso-level-number-format:bullet; mso-level-text:; mso-level-tab-stop:none; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-.25in; font-family:Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} ol {margin-bottom:0in;} ul {margin-bottom:0in;} -- /style p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"bspan style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: -1pt;"By E.K.Bensah Jr.o:p/o:p/span/b/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"bspan style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: -1pt;"!--[if !supportEmptyParas]-- !--[endif]--o:p/o:p/span/b/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: -1pt;"!--[if !supportEmptyParas]-- !--[endif]--o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoBodyTextIndent"I do not for a second doubt the intelligence of any of our musicians, but when their utterances defy common sense, it can only make you wonder if sense is so common, why doesn’t everybody then have it?/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--br //span/pp class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"br /span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"!--[endif]--o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"A term so platitudinous it is not funny—and often used by all and sundry— is the term “global village.” In other words, we are believed to be all connected in many more ways than we can imagine—and social networking tools like that of Facebook and Twitter exemplify this closeness to sometimes frightening proportions. This means that our understanding of issues have reached a point where most of us –thanks to online point-of-reference iWikipedia/i – accept a consensus on definitions./span/pp class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"br /span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"!--[if !supportEmptyParas]-- !--[endif]--o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"Last time I looked, an ambassador is someone who is supposed to carry the aspirations—i.e. represent—his nation or the beliefs encapsulated in a cause, hence the role of UN Ambassadors, such as the newly appointed Stevie Wonder. Such ambassadors are not UN officials, but carry and advocate the UN’s view of alleviating the scourge of war and promoting peace.o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--br //span/pp class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" !--[endif]--o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"So when a few weeks ago 16 artistes – actors and musicians alike – were made ambassadors for the Nigerian telco GLOBACOM, I thought it was evident that the whole package involved more than the money, and that it was more a case of these artistes representing GLOBACOM—and no other telco in the Ghanaian landscape. Even without recent reports alluding to some complaints about a so-called “exclusivity clause”, that they are ambassadors for a company speaks volumes about how they are expected to conduct themselves with these telecommunication companies.o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--br //span/pp class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" !--[endif]--o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"If all this seems like a black-and-white affair, let us pause and reflect for a nano-second: is it not great to have telcos come into the country to provide services and jobs for Ghanaians? Is it right, however, that they come and lure artistes with money to the extent that their space for performance is seriously inhibited by an exclusivity clause contract? o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--br //span/pp class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" !--[endif]--o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"Some might say “who cause ‘am? I can only scream “regulation!”o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--br //span/pp class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"br /span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"!--[endif]--o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"bspan style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"The Three MuskITeers?o:p/o:p/span/b/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"bspan style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--br //span/b/pp class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"bspan style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" !--[endif]--o:p/o:p/span/b/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"So Accra Mall now has no less than three Internet cafes: the Apple shop, powered by Vodafone; BusyInternet; and now very recently, Vodafone Ghana.span style="" /spanI do not think that anyone will now be quibbling about accessing their emails for that all-important mail, as for the price of GHC2.50/hr, one can access any of the three cafes. I guess the jury might be out for a while on the speed of the internet connections of these three places, but on the significance of the cafés, the verdict is out—and it is in favour of choice.o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--br //span/pp class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" !--[endif]--o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"Much like the presence of the five telcos in the country, consumers are being given choices to make on what comparative advantages any of the companies have that would be less expensive for the pocket, but I cannot help but wonder a bt about the presence of the three cafes.o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"!--[if !supportEmptyParas]-- !--[endif]--o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"br //span/pp class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"Granted, the novelty of the Apple shop café is that it is, frankly, classist: only those sufficiently audacious to try their luck on a Macintosh would want to try the Internet a la Mac. Looking at the role of Busyinternet is like looking at nothing at all—after all, Busy has been the industry leader for a good nine years. But then there’s Vodafone Ghana. o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--br //span/pp class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" !--[endif]--o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"I cannot for the life of me understand why the erstwhile Ghana Telecom that pretty much has a monopoly on the provision of broadband provision through its broadband4u does not simply bring down the cost of broadband so that many more new Vodafone Ghana users might get access. Is it just me or is the provision of a service to the public by a provider that has monopoly of that service, but fails to bring down the cost of that service to existing customers not sound like an idea turned on its head? o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"br /span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--/span/pp class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"br //span/pp class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"/pp class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"In short, why is Vodafone concentrating on competing with an industry [read: internet café] leader like Busyinternet (especially when it already has a presence through the Apple Shop which it powers) when its existing BROADBAND customers have been paying the same rate since they appeared on the scene in August 2008? Why not focus on bringing down the cost of broadband provision for those subscribers, while simultaneously inviting new subscribers to BROADBAND4U through a promotion?o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--br //span/pp class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" !--[endif]--o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"Unless Vodafone Ghana is planning on doing some strange things to the BROADBAND4U service and telling its customers, I shall be asking more of these hard questions!/span/pp class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"br /span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"o:p/o:p/span/pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24894530-409853090477202510?l=twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• December 02, 2009
• 11:40

  How the Ghanaian Media Missed the Masters of the Internet at IGF IV

   » ‎ From Technology in Tunis...to a Wireless WSIS
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mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-.25in; font-family:"Courier New";} @list l0:level3 {mso-level-number-format:bullet; mso-level-text:; mso-level-tab-stop:none; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-.25in; font-family:Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @list l0:level4 {mso-level-number-format:bullet; mso-level-text:; mso-level-tab-stop:none; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-.25in; font-family:Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @list l0:level5 {mso-level-number-format:bullet; mso-level-text:o; mso-level-tab-stop:none; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-.25in; font-family:"Courier New";} @list l0:level6 {mso-level-number-format:bullet; mso-level-text:; mso-level-tab-stop:none; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-.25in; font-family:Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @list l0:level7 {mso-level-number-format:bullet; mso-level-text:; mso-level-tab-stop:none; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-.25in; font-family:Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @list l0:level8 {mso-level-number-format:bullet; mso-level-text:o; mso-level-tab-stop:none; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-.25in; font-family:"Courier New";} @list l0:level9 {mso-level-number-format:bullet; mso-level-text:; mso-level-tab-stop:none; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-.25in; font-family:Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} ol {margin-bottom:0in;} ul {margin-bottom:0in;} -- /style p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style=""So the Internet Governance Forum has come and gone like it never happened—and none of the media in Ghana covered it. I cannot quite understand how the Ghanaian media can pick up feeds from the BBC on all and sundry, but somehow miss issues like these? If it is about building capacity, then perhaps a shake-up of the Editors who manage news content ought to be done so that particular kind of news can be covered. o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style=""!--[if !supportEmptyParas]-- !--[endif]--o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style=""I do not know about you, but last time I looked, technology had assumed an important factor in the development of most nations.span style="" /spanThat we have the beleagured Vodafone; Tigo; MTN; and Zain in the country and that they are reputed to making tongues of observers of that sector wag could be construed as a sign that the market is saturated, given that Globacom is yet to take-off. That in itself should probably give more of the media food for thought on the future of technology beyond value added services to our mobile phones. These days, for example, mobile internet has become ide rigeur/i, and I am wont to believe that it is only a non-discerning media that will want to leave the debate on technology at the door of mobile phones!o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style=""!--[if !supportEmptyParas]-- !--[endif]--o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style=""Truth be told, some papers have started to get their act together on reporting technology and ICT. Though I can only think of two out of many of the private press, it is at least a start. Then again, even one of the state-owned sister paper’s that does a great job on reporting technology every week failed to touch on the Internet governance forum, preferring to do an interview of the boss of the International Telecommunications Union(ITU) Dr Hamidou Toure.span style="" /spano:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style=""!--[if !supportEmptyParas]-- !--[endif]--o:p/o:p/span/p h1span style=""Why Internet Governance matterso:p/o:p/span/h1 p class="MsoBodyText"Perhaps one of the cardinal benefits of the internet is its ability to serve as a source of information to people all over the world. That it is generally free once one overcomes the hurdle of internet café fees and whatnot makes the appeal all the more greater. While I understand it is very easy to appreciate the value of the Internet and its utility for all sorts of uses, I also understand that it is very easy for all of us to take it for granted. /p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style=""!--[if !supportEmptyParas]-- !--[endif]--o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style=""This is where Internet governance comes in, because it enables policy to be formulated so that people worldwide can continue to enjoy its benefit. Even more critical is the Internet governance forum, which I touched on last week. Its value is found in the fact that it is a multi-stakeholder forum monitoring the work of the Internet, and therefore making it easier for policy to be produced around it. o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style=""!--[if !supportEmptyParas]-- !--[endif]--o:p/o:p/span/p p style="text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri;"The naysayersspan style="" /spanof the internet governance process might speculate that after the World Summit on Information Society in Tunis, the UN just needed another excuse to spend inordinate amounts of money on a process that does not get anywhere. Before we accept this idea lock, stock and barrel, let usspan style="" /spanread what is officially written about it. o:p/o:p/span/p p style="text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri;"Wikipedia says that it was /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri;"a working group established after a United Nations-initiated World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) that proposed the following definition of Internet governance as part of its June 2005 report:o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoBodyTextIndent"Internet governance is the development and application by Governments, the private sector and civil society, in their respective roles, of shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures, and programmes that shape the evolution and use of the Internet./p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"Wikipedia maintains that “Law professor Yochai Benkler developed a conceptualization of Internet governance by the idea of three "layers" of governance: the "physical infrastructure" layer through which information travels; the "code" or "logical" layer that controls the infrastructure; and the "content" layer, which contains the information that signals through the network.” supo:p/o:p/sup/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"In other words, looking at how the Internet works through how governments themselves do itheir/i work is probably one of the ways in which we can better-appreciate the work of the Internet Governance Forum. /p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"In the final analysis, if the impression I am giving is that the Ghanaian media does not cover these issues because they are apathetic to them, then I would be way off mark. The truth of the matter is that I should have known that having failed to cover the past three Internet Governance Forums (2006-2008), they were hardly going to change tack and suddenly begin covering it. At least, one has to commend the consistency!br //pp class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"br //pp class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"span style="font-style: italic;"ENDs/spanbr //pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24894530-7680953001641170437?l=twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• November 17, 2009
• 13:46

  Introducing the Masters of the Internet at the Fourth Internet Governance Forum

   » ‎ From Technology in Tunis...to a Wireless WSIS
  a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SwKreL_8d6I/AAAAAAAACZI/WQvgUba4Bvk/s1600/igf2-greece.gif"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 350px; height: 263px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SwKreL_8d6I/AAAAAAAACZI/WQvgUba4Bvk/s400/igf2-greece.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5405071037903435682" //abr /div style="margin: 1ex;" div p align="justify"span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;color:#333333;"bBy E.K.Bensah Jr./b/spanbr //p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;"Despite the apparent growing ubiquity of broadband internet--as expressed, for example, through USB mobile modems that promise us heaven and blink-of-the-eye speeds--it is true that access to the internet is a great deal better than it was even five years ago. /spanbr //p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;"The media generally likes to talk a lot about costs going down, inexorably providing the general Ghanaian population with relatively less expensive access to the Internet. Truth be told, the availability of mobile phones is probably that which has democratised access to the 'Net, through the easy access of wap-enabled services--as exemplified by those of Zain, which, with a simple sim card, enables you connect to mobile internet within 24 hours./spanbr //p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;"bBack to the ICT Future?/b/span/p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;"You may re-call that last week, I touched on ITU and how it creates standards. This week, I want to remind us to reflect a bit on the progress of the Internet since 2005, when the World Summit of Information Society ended in Tunisia with what has come to be known as the “Tunis Agenda for the Information Society”. Adopted on /spana href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_18" title="November 18" target="_blank"span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;color:#0000ff;"uNovember 18/u/span/aspan style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;", /spana href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005" title="2005" target="_blank"span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;color:#0000ff;"u2005/u/span/aspan style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;" in /spana href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunis,_Tunisia" title="Tunis, Tunisia" target="_blank"span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;color:#0000ff;"uTunis, Tunisia/u/span/aspan style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;", it called for the creation of an /spana href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Governance_Forum" title="Internet Governance Forum" target="_blank"span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;color:#0000ff;"uInternet Governance Forum/u/span/aspan style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;"(IGF) and what wikipedia calls “a novel, lightweight, /spana href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Multi-stakeholderamp;action=editamp;redlink=1" title="Multi-stakeholder (page does not exist)" target="_blank"span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;color:#0000ff;"umulti-stakeholder/u/span/aspan style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;" governance structure for the /spana href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet" title="Internet" target="_blank"span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;color:#0000ff;"uInternet/u/span/aspan style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;".”/spanbr //p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;"Few Ghanaians might know that as I write this, the Fourth Edition of what has become known to the ICT icognoscenti/i as IGF will end on 18 November, where a number of important developments in the ICT and information society sector will develop. The Internet Governance Forum is underway in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, which to some might seem a curious place, given its record on human rights. Already, repports doing the rounds on the internet are trying to suggest that the UN has been involved in some kind of nefarious conspiracy of silencing proponents of human rights--just because some UN guards removed posters on human rights that had not been approved earlier./spanbr //p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;" Back in Tunis, in 2005, there was even a stabbing of a human rights activist, lending credence to the assumption that just because it was a UN-sponsored conference, the global body could come and wag its finger at Tunisia for bad human rights. Most of us who had the priviledge to be there at that time were consumed by attentiveness to the multiplicity of terminologies and developments coming at us with juggernaut speed that in all honesty, agitations like that looked like a footnote to the wider debate on where the information society was going./span/p h1 align="justify"span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;"bIGF IV Explained/b/span/h1 p align="justify"span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;"All that said, reports seem to indicate that the meeting is rather focused, with discussions focusing primarily on access to the “Internet; diversity; openness; security; and critical internet resources”. /spanbr //p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;"The statistics are also not to be sneezed at. For example, Subramanian Ramadorai, the Vice-Chairman of Tata Consultancy Services in India has not just talked about how new technologies “can mean the difference between life and death for the 701 per cent of the global population still unconnected to the Internet”, but crucially, how “while 79.4 per cent of Australians and 70 per cent of Americans have internet access, only 15 per cent of Asians and only 4 percent of Africans have access.” This kind of statistic reinforces the perception of a digital divide that is a veritable reality for millions of the non-connected. One-Laptop-Per-Child (OLPC), though a commendable endeavour that also came out of WSIS 2005, can only go so far in addressing the digital divide. /spanbr //p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;"What it seems we can say about the outcome of this IGF is that it will be one that makes concrete suggestions on the above-mentioned points, including recognizing that connectivity has a direct correlation with a positive social and economic changes; therefore ensuring that rural communities are privy and party to these positive changes are critical. /spanbr //p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;"Ramadorai maintains that bringing ICT into rural clinics, schools and mobile devices, impacts basic education, health care, and agriculture in ways that one can never have imagined. To that extent, it makes sense that while we appreciate that consumers in the developed market enjoy broadband and are even moving to newer technologies, there is quite some catch-up that many parts of the developing world will need to do to ensure that the information society is not just part of UN nomenclature--but contributes to a fair and inclusive society./spanbr /br //p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;"bia href="mailto:ekbensah@gmail.com" target="_blank"ekbensah AT gmail.com/a / +233-268.891.841 a href="http://twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"wbr/a/i/b/span/p /div /divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24894530-2379609247755616575?l=twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• November 11, 2009
• 11:14

  Why the International Telecommunications Union(ITU) Matters

   » ‎ From Technology in Tunis...to a Wireless WSIS
  a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Svqg0P1KdrI/AAAAAAAACYY/BUz0g6neybM/s1600-h/itu.gif"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Svqg0P1KdrI/AAAAAAAACYY/BUz0g6neybM/s400/itu.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402807522447488690" //abr /div style="margin: 1ex;" div p align="justify"span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;color:#333333;"bBy E.K.Bensah Jr./b/spanbr /br //p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;"Despite the fact that Ghana recently took over the Council of the International Telecommunications Union from Bulgaria at their general meeting in Geneva, I do not for a second think that Ghanaians generally know what the implications of this position mean. I think it makes sense that if you are to understand the significance of the position, then it is only fair you obtain an insight into what the ITU is and does. In my estimation, few Ghanaians care enough to know these two. Against this background, I am going to spend the next couple of weeks touching on aspects of the ITU, what it does and why it matters--not just for Ghana, the sub-region or the continent, but for the rest of the world./span/p h1 align="justify"span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;"bITU Council for Dummies/b/span/h1 p align="justify"span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;"Let me begin, though, with the Council. It comprises 46 member states and is the ITU's governing body. The assuming of Ghana on the Council does not mean that Ghana gets to head the ITU; it simply means that like the UN's Security Council, which rotates between countries every now and then, Ghana will chair discussions of the 46-member group, which includes the implementation of the Union's strategic plan, with the objective of responding to the current demands of a fast-changing telecommunications and ICT environment./spanbr //p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;"Right now, Ghana's MP and Minister for Communications Haruna Iddrisu will be the key person on the ITU Council. Speaking early October at the start of the Council, he talked about how Ghana is committed “to the ideals and values of ITU”. Normal speak you might think. Indeed, but here was the killer: “we must set the tone and agenda on how to strengthen regulatory practices, address issues related to convergence and ensure the smooth functioning of the Internet.” /spanbr //p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;"It is conceivable that buried inside those words was not just a Minister of Communications hot on the heels of a report looking at the Sales and Purchase agreement (SPA) of the deal between Ghana Telecom and Vodafone, but one that has for quite a while sought to highlight the necessity of the rule of law around the telecommunications and ICT sector. In this respect, when he spoke this way, he was not just recognizing that there remain regulatory practices--as exemplified by Ghana's National Communications Authority(NCA) - but that governments have to keep an eagle-eye on strengthening regulation to the extent that new and emerging technologies can be kept under wraps as well./spanbr //p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;"Another key thing Iddrisu said was in relation to the hottest topic at the moment--climate change. Here, his words are in consonance with the ITU, which strongly believes that ICTs can be seriously harnessed to combat climate change./span/p h1 align="justify"span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;"bWhy we must care about the ITU/b/span/h1 p align="justify"span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;"After all has been said and done, the ITU is more than the governing council; it currently has a secretary-general--Malian Hamadoun Toure--and quite a bit of work to be done. However, most of its work can be broken down as Wikipedia explains it: “Its main tasks include /spana href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standardization" title="Standardization" target="_blank"span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;color:#0000ff;"ustandardization/u/span/aspan style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;", allocation of the /spana href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio" title="Radio" target="_blank"span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;color:#0000ff;"uradio/u/span/aspan style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;" spectrum, and organizing interconnection arrangements between different countries to allow international phone calls -- in which regard it performs for telecommunications a similar function to what the /spana href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UPU" title="UPU" target="_blank"span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;color:#0000ff;"uUPU/u/span/aspan style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;" performs for postal services”./spanbr //p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;"Breaking it down for the rest of us, ITU is in fact a lot about standards, standards, and more standards. Wikipedia explains it this way: “Due to its longevity as an international organization and its status as a specialized agency of the United Nations, standards promulgated by the ITU carry a higher degree of formal international recognition than those of most other organizations that publish technical specifications of a similar form.” /spanbr //p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;"In short, ITU is not just the UN's telecom agency, but the agency that sets standards that are meaningful. /spanbr //p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;"bBoon for mobile phone users--phone chargers!/b/span/p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;"Small wonder, then, that the ITU has just approved a standard for phone chargers. The UN agency has just given its endorsement to an energy-efficient one-charger-fits-all new mobile phone solution. Now, every mobile user will enjoy the new Universal Charging Solution(UCS), which enables the same charger be used for all future-compliant handsets--irrespective of make and model. /span/p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:85%;" /spanbr //p/div /divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24894530-1424878378420911112?l=twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• November 04, 2009
• 8:53

  Will The Elusive Globacom Offer us Better Value for Money?

   » ‎ From Technology in Tunis...to a Wireless WSIS
  a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SvFCvtBWDrI/AAAAAAAACXg/Vy2BoYSNw3w/s1600-h/Phone+credits.JPG"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SvFCvtBWDrI/AAAAAAAACXg/Vy2BoYSNw3w/s400/Phone+credits.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5400170815500455602" //abr /div style="margin: 1ex;"div br /p align="justify"span style=";font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;" Let us be clear: if you promise me that you will be arriving in a country in September, yet two months later, you have not made your presence known, might you not be considered to represent the word “elusive”? If so, then you might want to join me in tagging Ghana's sixth operator Globacom as a fitting candidate. Consider this. As far back as March this year, its website on a href="http://gloworld.com/" target="_blank"gloworld.com/a read: “biGlo Mobile Ghana is set to change the face of communication in Ghana as it engages ZTE, a highly-rated international telecoms vendor, to deploy additional access network infrastructure including hundreds of indoor and outdoor Basic Trans-receiver Stations (BTS) for its imminent roll-out./i/b” Given the lengthy delay of Globacom's entry into the country, could cynics be blamed for becoming weary at a combination of tardy Nigerian services with Chinese technology feared as sub-standard to be a harbinger of bad tidings for the festive season?/span/p h1 align="justify"span style="font-family:Calibri;"bTigo far from Trailing the Telco Competition/b/span/h1 p align="justify"span style="font-family:Calibri;"On a more serious side, given the serious competition going on off late, might Globacom not have arrived on the bad side of telco competition? If you are scratching your head in wonderment, you must have missed something: Zain has gone in overdrive to reward--and appease--all those new customers that have been complaining that they do not enjoy the bonus all those older customers get at the end of every two months. You can now send a message to a number, which will enable you enjoy all you spent in the day the following day./spanbr //p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Calibri;"Tigo might have stolen Zain's thunder, if truth be told, for it's value-added-service of paying 3.99GHC for a month to one Tigo number is doing wonders for those who have subscribed. Although you can add only one number at a time, imagine how much money you would have spent had you been calling a regular number without this promotion? In my book, Tigo is winning in so far as many others join the Tigo revolution./span/p h1 align="justify"span style=";font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;" bVodafone Vodoo!/b/span/h1 p align="justify"span style=";font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;" For a person who has more erstwhile /spana href="http://www.onetouch.com.gh/" target="_blank"span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" uONETOUCH chips/u/span/aspan style=";font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;" than sense, you could say I have become a sage!br /br /I have decided to abandon my vodafone chips. I just don't feel I am getting value for money. Last month, I got my bonus credit frombr //spana href="http://www.zain.com.gh/" target="_blank"span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" uZain/u/span/aspan style=";font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;" , looked at my Vodafone chips and shrugged.br /br /"Just not worth it" I thought./spanbr //p p align="justify"span style=";font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;" These days, using a mobile phone is not just about convenience, it is also about accommodating the necessary headache of buying units. Given the relatively execrable quality of lines these days at peak times (read: saturation!), you are likely to have dropped calls, which inevitably lead one to consider using secondary networks--which all cost money to maintain. Promotions do not a telco make, but when the only one they are also offering is as elusive as the arrival of Globacom into the country, then I begin to wonder whether it is not time to offer some TLC--tender loving care-- to my disposable income!/spanbr //p p align="justify"span style=";font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;" bTech Appeal 191/b/span/p ul type="DISC"lispan style=";font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;" Despite the fact that the Spintex Road is undergoing fresh tarring, given the execrable number of potholes there, tro-tros, more than any other kind of commercial driver, is behaving badly by overtaking and stopping on the shoulder of the roads when they could simply follow the queue. This morning, one of those Ashanti-bound American cars illegally overtook us as we were slowing down and, without warning, moved in front of us. This kind of intimidation does not help tempers in the morning. Does NRSC have a bnumber to call/b to check these types?/span/lilispan style=";font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;" I humbly submit that ALL news stations--from GTV through to METRO TV to TV3--set up numbers--either Multimedia messaging service (MMS) numbers or simple emails--where the Ghanaian public can either send pictures of bad driving of social ills, such as parked cars without triangles, etc. This way, every Ghanaian would feel involved in helping make Ghana a better place. More importantly, the spate of camera phones would be put to better use now that many people are beginning to feel the pinch of buying new phones in these hard, economic times. /span/lilispan style=";font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;" Will the Ghana police consider joining FACEBOOK, or having a twitter account? Imagine informing twitter “followers” and Facebook users that there is traffic up ahead on the Spintex Road? The service should think about the wonders that would bring to road management! Their website on a href="http://ghanapolice.info/" target="_blank"ghanapolice.info/a is this side short of bad, with latest news giving information posted in March 2009!/span/li/ulbr /p align="justify"span style=";font-family:Calibri;font-size:85%;" /spanbr //p p align="justify"span style=";font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;" bia href="mailto:ekbensah@gmail.com" target="_blank"ekbensah@gmail.com/a / 0268.891.841 / a href="http://twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"http://twelvedaysintunis.wbrblogspot.com/a/i/b/span/p /div /divbr /br /font size=1i*this piece will originally appear in upcoming edition of WEEKEND WORLD, to hit newstands this weekend/i/fontdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24894530-8847318456195986659?l=twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• October 02, 2009
• 13:17

  Cogitations on Workplace Facebook Policies

   » ‎ From Technology in Tunis...to a Wireless WSIS
  a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SsX9cCt_nkI/AAAAAAAACWY/RbMolSM6z0Q/s1600-h/facebook_cartoon.png"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 269px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SsX9cCt_nkI/AAAAAAAACWY/RbMolSM6z0Q/s400/facebook_cartoon.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387991187426614850" //abr /I must have died and gone to heaven! Given the egregious stories one hears about the banning of Facebook at the workplace off-late, I was very happy to know that the big boss himself was engaged in a discussion of the organisation's presence on Facebook, even if he considered it "experimental".br /br /The genesis of the discussion yesterday lay with a colleague wondering what guidelines existed for the direction of the organisation on Facebook. Considering I manage the fan page, I was a bit stumped. It is a very necessary discussion to be had, and I intend to produce something by the end of the week for revision.br /br /Even more interesting are a href="http://www.examiner.com/x-13398-Salt-Lake-City-Social-Media-Examiner~y2009m9d1-Creating-an-effective-facebook-fan-page"these tips/a on enhancing Facebook fan pages, which I hope will enhance your insight as much as it has mine!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24894530-3200055715954540778?l=twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• October 01, 2009
• 15:39

  Why I'm bored with Vodafone Ghana

   » ‎ From Technology in Tunis...to a Wireless WSIS
  a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SsTOAW-71pI/AAAAAAAACWI/pkIo_iCyuyg/s1600-h/vodafone-gt.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 205px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SsTOAW-71pI/AAAAAAAACWI/pkIo_iCyuyg/s400/vodafone-gt.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387657559806826130" //abr /For a person who has more erstwhile a href="http://www.onetouch.com.gh"ONETOUCH chips/a than sense, you could say I have become a sage!br /br /I have decided to abandon my vodafone chips (numbering 6!--don't ask how come?!). I just don't feel I am getting value for money. Yesterday, I got my bonus credit from br /a href="http://www.zain.com.gh"Zain/A, looked at my Vodafone chips and shrugged.br /br /"Just not worth it" I thought.br /br /Vodafone's promotion for the ridiculous $1m prize/Trassaco valley and shit just reflects the values of the new management that feel imost/i Ghanaians want to be chauffeur-driven in a 4X4 jeep, and live in a mansion, where there will be no regular stipend for its upkeep. br /br /Just plain foolish.br /br /I'm so mad with Vodafone I'm not even linking them--go and google them yourself. I always said Ghana Telecom should not be sold. br /br /It is only history and posterity that will judge the NPP administration for selling off Ghana's major communications service.br /br /Long live Ghana Telecom!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24894530-7363377674861861414?l=twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• July 09, 2009
• 12:27

  Zain vs MTN? You Decide!

   » ‎ From Technology in Tunis...to a Wireless WSIS
  It's been a while, I know. Have not yet mustered up the courage to write a piece on VODAFONE's "Red Day", and how deceptive it is. While you wait with baited breath, enjoy this one, which is an interesting post from a fellow a href="http://www.ghanablogging.com"Ghanablogging/A member--Mac Jordan--is worth reading here:br /br /strikeA href="http://www.mobileafrica.net/2281.htm"http://accraconsciousforever.blogspot.com/2009/07/why-i-prefer-zain-to-mtn.html/a/strikebr /br /I'm with Mac-Jordan on the Zain--though I don't get the missed calls:-(br /br /12.00pm update on 10 July, 2009: All of the above would have been okay if it were not for the fact that it was iactually/i David Ajao who wrote the post. Mac-Jordan merely culled it. Here's the original link: a href="http://www.mobileafrica.net/2281.htm"http://www.mobileafrica.net/2281.htm/a.br /br /Apologies to David, who put up a good piece for us!br /br /Sorry!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24894530-4259142921605580347?l=twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• July 02, 2009
• 19:31

  Welcome to Badoo!

   » ‎ From Technology in Tunis...to a Wireless WSIS
  div style="max-width: 800px; margin: 0; padding: 30px 0;" table width="80%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" tr td width="10%"/td td align="left" width="90%" style="font: 13px/18px Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" h2 style="font: normal 24px/27px Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0; padding: 0 0 18px; color: black;"Welcome to Badoo!/h2 Thanks for joining Badoo mdash; the best place to meet new people and friends in and around your local area. We listed your sign in details below. Make sure you keep them safe. To open your Badoo homepage, please follow this link:br / br / big style="font: 16px/18px Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"ba href="http://badoo.com/access.phtml?UID=149161649amp;secret=h1qS7MisT6amp;lang_id=3" style="color: #3366cc;"Go to Badoo now!/a/b/bigbr / br / Link doesn't work? Copy the following link to your browser address bar:br / nobra href="http://badoo.com/access.phtml?UID=149161649amp;secret=h1qS7MisT6amp;lang_id=3" style="color: #3366cc;"http://badoo.com/access.phtml?UID=149161649amp;secret=h1qS7MisT6amp;lang_id=3/a/nobrbr / br / Your email address: ekbensah.fromtunistowsis@blogger.combr / Your password: nugedotubr / br / br / Have fun!br / The Badoo Teambr / br / br / img src="http://images.badoo.com/1460/-/-/i/badoo.gif" width="80" height="23" alt="Badoo" / p style="margin-top: 10px; color: #666666;"This is a post-only mailing. Replies to this message are not monitored or answered. If you don't want to receive any more messages from Badoo, a href="http://eu1.badoo.com/impersonation.phtml?lang_id=3amp;mail_code=8amp;email=ekbensah.fromtunistowsis%40blogger.comamp;secret=h1qS7MisT6" style="color: #3366cc;"click here/a./p /td /tr /table /div div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24894530-5724300621604376536?l=twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com'//div
• April 24, 2009
• 16:42

  The Multi-Facetted World of ICT Complaints

   » ‎ From Technology in Tunis...to a Wireless WSIS
  It appears the longer I stay away from blogging, the higher the complaints mount!br /br /It just struck me how in Ghana there are many stories just ibegging/i to be written; it also seems a large number of our fourth-columnists are unable to cover them all. This is why blogging is so useful and instructive.br /br /For the past week, I have been battling with both iSHOPRITE/i and iGAME/i about their links. The stories are not necessarily apocryphal as they are annoying. First I am told that a goo number of people earlier in the day were able to purchase goods with the car ds so my card will work. Next, I realise after some ten minutes that it isn't going to go anywhere, especially as it's the evening.br /br /h2E-Transactions from where?/h2br /I blame less the tellers--and more the shop, which I believe should ensure that it does its level best to make sure the links are working! A cashless society is not going to come anytime soon if even the retailers are not concerned about making sure their customers are happy. br /br /I have been encouraged, though, by what I have been seeing in the papers about standards and all that. Standards as in iGhana Standards Board/i. Question, though, is whether they are the right agency to seek re-dress about e-transactions? I cannot help but wonder whether there is not a istandard/i about thesebr /br /h2A Decentralised ECG/h2br /On a happier note, I have also seen in the papers that it's possible to buy iCashpower/i electricity from new outlets. If it's true that there's one closer to home, then I will die a happier man!;-)div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24894530-2484087021366505777?l=twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• April 16, 2009
• 16:17

  Bonfire of Laptop Vanities!

   » ‎ From Technology in Tunis...to a Wireless WSIS
  a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SedbpEgYJZI/AAAAAAAACGM/t_zRCYPOArA/s1600-h/ekbensah-canon+005.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SedbpEgYJZI/AAAAAAAACGM/t_zRCYPOArA/s400/ekbensah-canon+005.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5325325845531207058" //abr /Two--nay,three stories have conspired to remind me that maybe Someone out there wants us to remember that technology will come and go, but we humans will remain, and that there is more to life than broken-down laptops.br /br /The first story is none other than my own laptop, which I've already blogged about in the "nightmare on HP street" series, which you can click in the labels below.br /br /The second has to do with a a href="http://www.ghanablogging.com"ghanablogging/a colleague who bemoaned a few days ago how their laptop--same as mine--had the screen break down on them when they accidentally slept with the hand, or so, on it. The worst of it all is that the retailers would tell them that they could not have that HP Pavilion fixed here in Africa! (bso you can imagine why the guy has istill/i not contacted me/b)br /br /Finally, my work colleague (the big boss) mentioned yesterday how his laptop "died" on him. His is a TOSHIBA, so I shudder to think what brand to consider next in my search for a laptop!!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24894530-3268476039976941220?l=twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• April 09, 2009
• 14:15

  Laptop's Final Destination: Osu, Centre of Accra

   » ‎ From Technology in Tunis...to a Wireless WSIS
  Finally, I was able to take my laptop into the centre of town. Once I got there, I explained that I bought it almost a year ago, and the blank screen was on acocunt of a congenital defect, as it were. It was no virus; just a defect from teh HP Pavilion series.br /br /Am unsure whether this has stuck with the retailers, but at least they told me they'd get back to me. I'm happy to know that ordering it will take only 5 working days. br /I was asked to return my laptop till they've placed the order.br /br /Considering how much it might cost, I think it might also take 5 days, multiplied by 30 days to raise sufficient money to buy the motherboard!br /br /Here's to a judicious calculation/usage of my money for the next couple of months!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24894530-4965037057824038832?l=twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• April 06, 2009
• 12:10

  Monday Reflections of a Technology Kind: Fighting the Facebook Fraternity...HP Nightmare Re-Dux

   » ‎ From Technology in Tunis...to a Wireless WSIS
  Encouraged by a couple of readers to this blog, I've decided to make it more active than ever before. Am not quite sure how, exactly--except to be as natural as possible. And not too long.br /br /If you read some of my other blogs, there's a propensity to write mini-tomes. I want to avoid doing this here--even though technology and discussions on the information society do occasionally demand such dedication!br /br /Let's start with the weekend listening to the a href="http://www.bbcworldservice.com"BBC Worldservice/a, and hearing on Saturday that a girl saved a British boy who said he was going to commit suicide thru Facebook. You can read the story here: a href="http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Facebook_Saves_British_Boy/551-100790-643.html"http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Facebook_Saves_British_Boy/551-100790-643.html/a.br /br /A simple news search reveals a good b58,206/b searches---and my broither, if that is not headache-inducing, I don't know what is! There are too many people writing about Facebook--iand very well!/i that I don't really want to add to the noise. br /br /ANd, really, I'm not talking about a href="http://www.twitter.com"twitter.com/a. A colleague, who is apparently on it, was surprised to hear I had not joined it! So I write a weekly column on technology, but I don't honestly have to be a ipart/i of all processes to understand it do I? Oh, God, am getting a headache thinking about it. Whatever happened to the iproof of the pudding is in the eating/i? Ouch...br /br /So, I find myself in a bit of an existential paradox--to twitter or not to twitter? Whichever is the question? br /br /You tell me!br /br /Just before I go, I've managed to avoid going on Facebook today as well, and I plan to make occasional visits there through my imobile/i, through m.facebook.com--as I did over the weekend. I'm really looking for friend requests (though with over 400, I don't know why!!!) and being tagged on notes, which I do sometimes feel duty-bound to reply...br /br /This week--finally--the laptop goes to the cleaners. Of sorts...div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24894530-4384032366354191756?l=twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• April 03, 2009
• 16:12

  Survived One Day off Facebook!

   » ‎ From Technology in Tunis...to a Wireless WSIS
  I thought I wouldn't be able to do it, but I have. You see, it helps if you're already naturally blazy/b like myself. It means, then, that you won't feel that but iarsed/i to open another browser to open Facebook in it.br /br /If you're wondering why I just couldn't open facebook in another tab in bOpera/b, it is that when you do, you cannot input data to submit on the wall and whatnot. Eventually, you're left with opening the application in another browser.br /br /This naturally makes it easier for one to wean oneself off it. Coupled with atavastic laziness, you're onto a winner, baby!br /br /In all seriousness, managed to stretch the day off facebook to today--if only for a short while.br /br /Meanwhile, my work on a href="http://www.sundayworldonline.com"Sunday World/a newspaper has been held in abeyance for a while as they work on re-launching the format of their paper.br /br /I haven't produced an article in two weeks and am getting withdrawal symptoms! But I am getting ideas, some of which include: br /br /licyber-crime/libr /liregional integration technology/libr /liPan-African network (satellite)/libr /licyber-crime!/libr /br /On cyber-crime, there's quite a lot of it going on off-late, what with the A href="http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/03/30/canada-unmasks-chinese-spy-network"Chinese spy network/A news of last week. I cannot help but wonder whether that kind of illegality will get that much worse as the information society becomes more sophisticated.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24894530-6292135196911922690?l=twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• April 02, 2009
• 9:46

  No Facebook till 12pm!

   » ‎ From Technology in Tunis...to a Wireless WSIS
  a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SdSMCdWqCFI/AAAAAAAACEY/XPdJy9qn0oM/s1600-h/joshfacebook0406_600big-1.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 279px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SdSMCdWqCFI/AAAAAAAACEY/XPdJy9qn0oM/s400/joshfacebook0406_600big-1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5320031033698682962" //aIt's not quite giving up a href="http://abluteau.wordpress.com/2009/03/09/lents-most-controversial-sacrifice-facebook/"Facebook for Lent/a, but it's more of not being distracted till lunchtime. I have too many things doing than adding what many have called the "noise" of the Internet. Good thing I'm not yet on a href="http://danielhg.blogspot.com/2009/04/twitter-sucks-ass.html"twitter/a!br /br /A good tip, in my view, is to open up Facebook on a href="http://twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com/2008/02/when-banking-on-it-goes-wrong.html"FIREFOX/a, whilst you open the rest of your "applications" on another browser, like A href="http://twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com/2008/02/microsoft-yahoo-it-doesnt-get-any-more.html"Opera/a, which I use for regular work. That way, opening up firefox with Facebook becomes a drag, and hence inhibits the desire to open it.br /br /Good luck!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24894530-6404741024966909569?l=twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• April 01, 2009
• 16:48

  HP Laptop update--the Mother of all Statements!

   » ‎ From Technology in Tunis...to a Wireless WSIS
  I decided not to go to Osu--in the centre of town--to get my laptop checked out, but go to the shop where I bought it at A href="http://www.accramall.com"Accra Mall/a.br /br /I spoke to a lady there, who wondered whether my problem was not a virus? WTF?! I explained that she could do a google check for HP Pavilion tx1000, and see that it is an HP problem!br /br /When I asked about the warranty, she was reluctant, explaining that she doesn't believe that it covers the motherboard!br /br /For God's sake, the motherboard is the, well, mother of the laptop; without it, it cannot function! When someone talks like that, it only goes to confirm that they're unwilling to repair it for me free.br /br /So, the answer, really, is to pay for it; need to find how to rob a bank (hopefully my account!) over the next couple of months to get it changed and repaired.br /br /Triple-bloody-OUCH!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24894530-1922908804394890513?l=twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• March 27, 2009
• 16:42

  A Brave New (Laptop-less) World Beckons...

   » ‎ From Technology in Tunis...to a Wireless WSIS
  I've been laptop-less for the past one week, choosing to put off going to the STARLITE shop in Osu, deep in the capital of Accra, which outlet is at a href="http://accradailyphoto.blogspot.com/search/label/accra%20mall"Accra Mall/a, where I bought the-said HP laptop tx1000 last April. I know the warranty still covers, but I am prepared for the worst--that they'll tell me they won't cover it as the year is practically out.br /br /Whatever the case may be, I'm thinking about procuring a DESKTOP computer for myself as a long-term investment. My old laptop (Packard-Bell) is unusable, and I am iso/i in need of one. But I will cope!br /br /Whilst I do that, I cannot help but wonder which regulatory authority exists anywhere, but an ieffective/i consumer association that sets bstandards/b on goods that come into the country. I was thinking that the a href="http://nca.innovategh.com/"National Communications Authority/a might be the one, but I believe probably that a href="http://ghanastandards.org/"Ghana Standards Board/a is more apt.br /br /My search continues--oh, and so does my ineed/i to take the laptop for examination and accept the consequences!!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24894530-7939212491004961161?l=twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• March 26, 2009
• 16:22

  Nightmare on HP Pavilion Street (1)

   » ‎ From Technology in Tunis...to a Wireless WSIS
  a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/ScusHrkXAdI/AAAAAAAACDQ/yi1x_SiMZUM/s1600-h/IMG_1236.JPG"img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/ScusHrkXAdI/AAAAAAAACDQ/yi1x_SiMZUM/s400/IMG_1236.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5317533032995291602" border="0" //abr /bspan style=";font-family:quot;;font-size:18;" Nightmare on HP Pavilion Street (1)o:p/o:p/span/b/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"bspan style=";font-family:quot;;font-size:9;" By E.K.Bensah IIo:p/o:p/span/b/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"bspan style=";font-family:quot;;font-size:9;" o:p /o:p/span/b/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"bspan style=";font-family:quot;;font-size:9;" o:p /o:p/span/b/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style=";font-family:quot;;font-size:10;" It all began last week when a good friend of mine gave me some frantic missed calls, which ended up providing me with a compulsion to call, only to obtain a profound revelation about the state of a particular series of HP laptops.o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style=";font-family:quot;;font-size:10;" o:p /o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style=";font-family:quot;;font-size:10;" His misadventure began almost twelve months ago when he purchased a sleek, HP Pavilion tx1000 Entertainment laptop from one of the retailers at Accra Mall. I won’t mention the price—it might just give him a small heart attack, considering the current woes!—but suffice-to-say it was a price that befits the mean, sleek status. To cut a long story short, there he was having happily used it for the past eleven and a half months when suddenly, the screen goes blank. That he had put his work on “hibernate” was sufficient to prompt him to switch the laptop off and on many times to see whether it was not a glitch.o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style=";font-family:quot;;font-size:10;" o:p /o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style=";font-family:quot;;font-size:10;" No go.o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style=";font-family:quot;;font-size:10;" o:p /o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style=";font-family:quot;;font-size:10;" He related that he plugged the machine on; took the battery out (adding curses for good measure)—all to no avail. Deciding to take it to a professional, he gave it to his colleague at work who did a google search—only to read that there were manifold—strike that, hundreds of—complaints about that same laptop! The genesis of the laptop defect finds its origin in an NVDIA chip that is so defective it’s not funny, enabling the laptop to heat up unnecessarily. Times I had used his laptop were times I wished I had brought an egg along to fry on my lap: no need explaining the profound heat that emanates from it.o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style=";font-family:quot;;font-size:10;" o:p /o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style=";font-family:quot;;font-size:10;" The story about a defective chip that HP is clearly aware of but plays possum over does little to assuage the frustrations of many increasingly disappointed HP users. HP has pedigree, so this attitude is not just uncalled for, but totally out of order. I have not quite had the epiphany that will show me the way on what agencies in our dear country cases like these would require the attention of, but I will certainly get back to you on them. o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style=";font-family:quot;;font-size:10;" o:p /o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"bspan style=";font-family:quot;;font-size:10;" Tech Appeal 191o:p/o:p/span/b/p ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style=";font-family:quot;;font-size:10;" Given the spate of lights-off off late, it might be a good idea for ECG to help Ghanaians a bit more by establishing a toll-free number. I have been calling the 021.611.611 number for the past few weeks the lights have been disappointing us, but it’s getting a tad expensive. I continue to wonder what the point is of a hotline that inhibits people from calling itb! /bUndoubtedly, you will always have consumers call—out of frustration or hope is moot—but it stands to reason that calling a landline from your mobile phone (which is frankly more ubiquitous these days than the former), coupled with the nebulous talk-time tax is off-putting. I would like to humbly appeal to ECG to think of going the way of the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) that has a hotline on mobile networks for their own hotline!bo:p/o:p/b/span/lili class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style=";font-family:quot;;font-size:10;" Another noteworthy development during the past week is a sobering one of deaths on the roads. A combination of illiterate and ill-disciplined drivers driving very badly has conspired to remind us that there needs to be something done rather quickly on sensitizing both car-owners and otherwise about road safety. To that end, it is great to hear from NRSC hotline (ONETOUCH 0800.10.800) that they now have an MTN version of the hotline, which can be reached on MTN 18008. One would be glad to know that this is a toll-free line! The appeal this week is to ask NRSC to ensure that there are sufficient media campaigns about the hotline so that everyone can be involved in alerting the hotline (and the Motor Transport Unit of the Ghana Police (MTTU) by extension) of non-roadworthy cars; speeding bus-drivers and whatnot.bo:p/o:p/b/span/li/ul p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style=";font-family:quot;;font-size:10;" o:p /o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"bspan style=";font-family:quot;;font-size:10;" o:p /o:p/span/b/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"bspan style=";font-family:quot;;font-size:10;" Highlights on Ghanablogging.como:p/o:p/span/b/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style=";font-family:quot;;font-size:10;" The initiative for Ghanablogging.com started in 2008. The brainchild of a group of dedicated Ghanaian bloggers, it is fair to say that it is one Kajsa Hallberg Adu who has spearheaded the group, and put energy into ensuring that there are monthly meetings. Over the next couple of editions, there will be more about the group featured in here, but today, I begin the first of highlights that have featured on the website ghanablogging.como:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style=";font-family:quot;;font-size:10;" o:p /o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style=";font-family:quot;;font-size:10;" We begin with *bAccra by Day amp; Night*/b, which latest entry “Cautionary Tales of Taxis” provides a vignette of some of the things that go wrong when you take a taxi in Accra and it blurts to a rude stop: “iThe reason was a simple one: petrol--or lack thereof! We had to wait some ten minutes before the taxi driver ran up to GOIL, get some fuel, and get back to the car to fill it up/i”. o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style=";font-family:quot;;font-size:10;" o:p /o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style=";font-family:quot;;font-size:10;" Nigerian internet entrepreneur *bDavid Ajao*/b writes about visiting the E-tranzact show that took place at Aviation Social Centre, but starts off by giving us an insight in to what the service is all about: “ieTranzact is an online real-time payment system that allows account holders to pay for goods and services purchased from merchants, transfer funds to any bank account, cell phone, any card, pay bills, order products e.t.c. This is possible because etranzact allows cardholders to use any of the following channels to transact: web (using any internet browser in a secured transaction), mobile phones, POS terminals (Point of Sale), ATMs, or bank branches/i”. o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style=";font-family:quot;;font-size:10;" o:p /o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style=";font-family:quot;;font-size:10;" *bRamblings of a Procrastinator in Accra*/b entertains us with her piece on smoking in Ghana, and reminds us of some of the uncomfortable views Ghanaians hold on smokers of the female persuasion. She writes: “iSmoking in Ghana is an interesting phenomenon.You hardly see people smoking in public but when you go out at night, swarms of smokers come out of hiding. Well, maybe these folks are mostly social smokers. There is something socially unacceptable about smoking in Ghana. Seeing a woman smoke is almost considered an abomination and there is an unflappable stereotype that a woman smoking by herself in a club/pub is a commercial sex worker!/i”. She concludes with a little warning: “…ito all you ladies who may find yourself flying solo out at night ciggie in hand/i.” o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style=";font-family:quot;;font-size:10;" o:p /o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style=";font-family:quot;;font-size:10;" We finally end with *bWhy so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African* /bwho offers a candid piece on how most of the best comedians in Ghana are…all Nigerian! He writes: “iNigerian comedy has become viral and it's not only popular on Facebook. It's popular on the pen drives (USB drives for y'all non-Ghana' lingo savvy people) of Ghanaian students. As a shout-out to these pen drives, I'll feature a video I got from one, about the genius of Naija's Klint da Drunk. Watch him make Nigerian reggae music. The emergence of these Nigerian comedians, at least on the West African scene, has spurned more people going into stand-up comedy. Some of these guys are Julius Agwu, Teju BabyFace, Okey Bakassi, I Go Die, Ali Baba, AY, etc. You can check out all these guys on Youtube./i”. o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style=";font-family:quot;;font-size:10;" o:p /o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"bispan style=";font-family:quot;;font-size:8;" ekbensah@gmail.com / ONETOUCH.755.08.45 / [twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.como:p] div style="border-style: none none solid; padding: 0in 0in 1pt;" p class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none ; padding: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"span style=";font-family:quot;;font-size:10;" o:p /o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none ; padding: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"bispan style=";font-family:quot;;font-size:8;" o:p /o:p/span/i/b/p /div p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"span style=";font-family:quot;;font-size:12;" o:p /o:p/span/pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24894530-643439122546009118?l=twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• March 11, 2009
• 17:17

  Welcome to the Real Three “G”--the Globalised Google Generation!

   » ‎ From Technology in Tunis...to a Wireless WSIS
  a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SbfzGq09ORI/AAAAAAAACBA/KEa5Q42mEXE/s1600-h/google180.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 180px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SbfzGq09ORI/AAAAAAAACBA/KEa5Q42mEXE/s400/google180.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311981581407959314" //abr /By E.K.Bensah II br /br /In many more ways than we can imagine, technology has begun to assume a multi-disciplinary approach. In other words, you find that it is associated with, say, the security services (how the police, for example, can make effective use of camera phones and checking traffic infractions; and the service industry (as exemplified by how you can place orders online to have your food delivered, for example). br /br /Only last Saturday, the BBC world service, in its “Heart and Soul” programme looked at the degree to which religion had gone hi-tech to the extent that people were even cyber-worshipping, without the need to step into a physical building. The conclusion the presenter drew was that for all the double-edged swords that come with the web, it continues to offer a platform for freedom of expression of all kinds; in that respect, he averred, it might not be as bad a place to worship as any other. br /br /In my last article, I touched tangentially on the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), without fully going into how ICTs would help serve the organization. In this week's article, I yet again refer to it, albeit superficially, in the context of the multi-disciplinary approach of technology. That I was able to, in two past articles, look at the role of technology as it pertains to both the small and big screen, in my opinion, speaks volumes of how integrated and wired it has become in our lives. What it also does, though, is buttress the multi-disciplinary aspect that has been conferred it. br /br /This hydra-headed element of technology is both interesting and noteworthy. It is interesting because it enhances many facets of our lives; and noteworthy because it makes us pause to reflect and question whether there is sufficient literature on an emerging discipline. Should there be insufficient material out there that pertains to the developing information society of developing countries like that of Ghana, then surely, it behooves not just our ICT practitioners and academics join forces, but also our omnipresent regulators that have taken too much flak for too long to help educate us. br /br /bNCA Continues to Fail Ghanaian Consumers!/bbr /br /Let us take the case of the NCA. If we were to visit the website of Independent UK regulator OFCOM at A href="http://www.ofcom.org.uk"www.ofcom.org.uk/a the week of 9 March, 2009, we see that it is consumer-oriented, with, inter alia, features on how the global recession will affect consumers; how consumers can make and submit complaints to OFCOM on harmful or offensive material they hear on the radio; research and market data and advice for consumers. Back here in Ghana, never mind that you'll get similar material, you don't even know what website to check the NCA on--is it A href="http://www.nca.innovategh.com"http://www.nca.innovategh.com//a, or the erstwhile a href="http://www.nca.gov.gh"http://www.nca.gov.gh/a? The br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SbfzOCC7NMI/AAAAAAAACBI/mNpXZsoLlKY/s1600-h/ofcom.JPG"img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 291px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SbfzOCC7NMI/AAAAAAAACBI/mNpXZsoLlKY/s400/ofcom.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311981707899647170" //abr /fact that there's a new government might be all well and good, but I don't see how the website needs to change from its server each time there is a change in government. If this were the case, then surely the a href="http://www.Ghana.gov.gh"http://www.Ghana.gov.gh/a portal would be non-functioning; yet the very week the new government came into office, the site was updated! br /br /Still on the multi-disciplinary approach, just as in the face of the global credit crisis, we seem ready to bury globalization and cast it back to the bowels of the earth; it has made me wonder whether it is not analogous to the study of technology? br /br /bCruising to a Google Generation…/bbr /br /At the superficial level, could we not say that like globalization, technology is everywhere we turn--from our mobile handsets to the more-obvious desktop and laptop computers. On another level, could we not surmise that technology has globalised us all? Let's face it: here in Ghana, how many tech-savvy consumers of technology do not own either a YAHOO or GMAIL account--or both, and a Facebook account for good measure? If there is any distinguishing characteristic between me and the average literate [and middle class] Ghanaian, will I not find affinity with them in these three? br /br /For most of us who can remember when Google became a verb (back in 2006), you might note that we never say “I'll MSN/askjeeves/altavista this”; the refrain is all too familiar--“I'll google” this or that. This surely has to be the google generation that never was! But it is also more--it is a google generatiojn that is globalised; globalised because everyone is talking about it. br /br /b…that is Globalised?/bbr /br /My only problem with this Globalised Google Generation is that we run the risk of becoming perfunctory beings operating on similar levels of consciousness. Surely the beauty of life is the diversity of it? Why risk becoming imitations of each other when we can become radicalized, different beings? Then I think about the astronomical rise of Facebook, and wonder whether I am truly living in 2009. The Facebook phenomenon has been discussed elsewhere and this column more times than one can imagine, but its phenomenal status cannot -and will not - be sneezed at. Its revolution has not--and will not--be televised. br /br /Long before Facebook came to steal its thunder, MySpace held the fort as the veritable social networking site. These days, it seems to be so old news to even mention it. Yet, when we pause for a nano-second, we realize that there was a rationale for calling it a social networking site. We did not need Aristotle to remind us that man is a social animal before we went out there to start networking and connecting. We have always sought to connect and integrate. Human relationships are perhaps the greatest redemption of our desire to connect, and marriage, as one British commentator Chief Rabbi Jonathon Sacks said on BBC Radio Four in 2000, is “the greatest redemption of our loneliness”. What technology ultimately does is offer one of many platforms to facilitate socializing and networking--with Facebook taking it to amazing levels. br /br /bThe Real "three G"/bbr /br /Some mobile providers have forever-talked about offering us 3G services, further connecting us. Some of us--Luddites and all--will choose to opt out; the up-and-coming generation might dig in as if their lives depended on it--till they get bored. Given that there is only so much technology can offer, it has become incumbent on us to find how it can complement--and not serve as a substitute--of our lives. I don't know about you, but in so many ways I am in a paradoxical way happy to be part of what I call the “real three G”: the Globalised, Google Generation. br /br /ENDsdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24894530-2157226533912624149?l=twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• August 22, 2008
• 14:09

  West Africa--the New Telecom's Frontier?

   » ‎ From Technology in Tunis...to a Wireless WSIS
  p class="mobile-photo"a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SK7T8FCFHhI/AAAAAAAABLA/tZX_2qPz22M/s1600-h/sotelma-772513.jpg"img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SK7T8FCFHhI/AAAAAAAABLA/tZX_2qPz22M/s320/sotelma-772513.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5237356445774978578" //a/pp class="mobile-photo"a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SK7T8Vc1h-I/AAAAAAAABLI/cy8RhQJpPvM/s1600-h/Sub-Saharan_Africa_map-773175.gif"img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SK7T8Vc1h-I/AAAAAAAABLI/cy8RhQJpPvM/s320/Sub-Saharan_Africa_map-773175.gif" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5237356450182170594" //a/pp class="mobile-photo"a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SK7T876-R9I/AAAAAAAABLQ/7Byd7ZROGdo/s1600-h/man-happy-phone-774939.jpg"img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SK7T876-R9I/AAAAAAAABLQ/7Byd7ZROGdo/s320/man-happy-phone-774939.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5237356460509120466" //a/pdiv dir="ltr"p align="justify"span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:180%;color:#333333;"bWest Africa--the New Telecom's Frontier?/b/span/p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;color:#333333;"bBy E.K.Bensah II/b/span br //p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"From Ghana Telecom to Nigeria Telecom,b /bthe privatization bandwagon is on course in the ECOWAS region. If you recall that last week we touched on the West African neighbour of Mali's landline set for privatization by the end of the year, you might also remember that NiTel was broached. Although incoming Globacom made some noises a few weeks ago supporting GT's divestiture, the country itself has kept rather mute on what lessons the GT/Vodafone debate might hold for the regional giant./span br //p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"It has always often been said that if Ghana is the gateway to West Africa, Nigeria is the destination. This much was confirmed when a couple of editions ago, we broached the issue of Stanbic Bank's acquisition of a Nigerian bank after having missed the Ghanaian one - Agricultural Development Bank --by a whisker. In the telco industry, the situation is not that much different. The exception in the drama that has unfolded over GT is that Vodafone has itself kept mute over its potential acquisition of NiTel. There has been little in the press to suggest that it remains interested in NiTel. /span br //p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"Nonetheless, the Nigerian parliamentarians are unperturbed and have set the pace - unlike in Ghana - on ensuring some degree of accountability./span br //p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"Judging from the Nigerian press at least, the debate has been non-existent to the fever-pitch degree here in Ghana. Instead, the lawmakers, accepting a major contention of NiTel having failed, have sought to find out why. To this end, the Senate Committee on Communications is to probe the roles played by concerned stakeholders in the fall of NiTel./span br //p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"Nigeria's iVanguard/i newspaper reports that some of those that contributed to the downfall of NiTel virtually defrauded the company of billions of naira in dues. Chairman of the committee Senator Sylvester Anyanwu at a press briefing alleged that the private operators were using as much as 75% of the capacity and infrastructure of NiTel for free, with some of them "enjoying a two-year rides in the company"./span br //p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"Concrete steps have been taken to hold such people accountable, including a letter to the President of the Republic Umara Yar'Adua asking him to turn down the appointment of BNP Paribas as consultants and advisers in their repeated attempts at selling NiTel. Secondly, the Committee has managed to trace the origin of NiTel's downturn to 2003 when a putative Dutch company-Pentascope--managed it [does Telenor in GT come to mind?] turning NiTels "profit profile into a loss despite the inflow of a N40 billion unsolicited loan for the company." Third, unlike the lack of accountability surrounding Ghana's National Communications Authority (NCA), the Committee has asked the latter's Nigerian counterpart--better known as the Nigerian Communications Commission(NCC)--to "get off the fence and take a position in this ongoing debate and investigation  of the irregularities in NiTel." Finally, the Chairman of the Committee listed MTN Nigeria; Starcomms, Globacom; Shell; Ericsson; First Bank; Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas among many others who have failed to give account of their financial obligations to Nitel. This is no different in Ghana, where many companies owed GT millions, but was never broached in the contemplation of the sale to Vodafone./span br //p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"In order to ensure that there is significant movement, the committee has asked the security agencies "to ensure that current and former staff of companies which played a role in the past botched privatization of NiTel were made to account for their deeds." These include the Bureau of Public Enterprises(BPE), which has claimed to have played no role in the whole affair--despite the fact that, as the paper avers, "former staff of the BPE…played inglorious roles in the …sale of NiTel". Unlike in Ghana where the NCA issued a fine and left no room for enforcing the fine, Nigeria has gone a different way. Failure to respond to the above queries, the paper continues, will force the Committee to invoke its powers under certain sections of the Constitution to ensure that they comply./span/p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;color:#333333;" /span/p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;color:#333333;"bVivian Reding's Unwitting Push of Vodafone to Africa?/b/span/p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"Like a bad smell, the ramifications of the acquisition by Britain-based Vodafone will not go away. Although most Ghanaians seem to be tight-lipped now about the sale, especially because they have been put before a bfait accompli/b, elsewhere, the news is not so bright for Vodafone./span br //p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"Forget the fact that Vodafone is in court in India over tax issues at the moment. Let's just troop down to the UK itself for a while. According to iMobile News/i, the UK and Spain used to be Vodafone's "cash cow". Now, the revenues in those markets are not so hot. This is the reason why it's been necessary for Vodafone to expand into Eastern European and African markets. The article reports that in its own home market of the UK, it has "shed customers." With its churn up, "its voice revenues were down." /span br //p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"On top of it all, the so-called combative European Commissioner for Information Society Vivian Reding - characteristically hot on the heels of creating opportunities for consumers - has managed to sideline a number of the mobile phone operators with her campaign on termination rates and the cutting of roaming charges that have normally been rather prohibitive. Companies like Vodafone have seen the future as not being bright, and jumped the pond to escape the wrath of Reding. As a consequence, 140,000 customers have been added to the Vodafone giant in Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa. /span br //p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"The coming of Vodafone to these markets have however coincided with phenomenal developments in the mobile phone, or telco industry--and no where has this been more significant than in West Africa./span br //p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;color:#333333;"bMali's Privatisation Process Unclear/b/span/p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;color:#333333;"It is a fact that come the end of 2008, Mali's landline SOTELMA will be privatized. Apart from the fact that we now know that BNP Paribas is a consultant/transaction adviser for the process--much like in the NiTel process above--little else is indicated in the press about the state of play. It appears that although the francophone press has touched on it, the Anglophone press probably could not care less!/span br //p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;color:#333333;"bBurkina Faso's Landline Goes for IPO/b/span/p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;color:#333333;"Meanwhile, also in West Africa, the small ECOWAS country is pursuing an Initial Public Offer(IPO) for a (private) 20% stake in its state-owned ONATEL. The francophone online paper ba href="http://lesafriques.com/" target="_blank"lesafriques.com/a/b reports that the state will retain 23%, whilst personnel will get 6%. It's unclear what happens to the remaining 51%!/span br //p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;color:#333333;"bRegulating Guinean Telcos, Re-Nationalising Soltelgui/b/span/p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;color:#333333;"The small ECOWAS country will be getting its equivalent of Ghana's NCA in a regulatory authority that has yet to be named. Tibou Kamara, the Guinean Minister of Communication and New Technologies, has indicated that the month of August will see the country's first regulatory body. It is interesting to read that the Minister believes that a lack of a regulatory regime and a body that can play its rightful role is a "handicap" in the "normalization of services rendered by operators." He says that it is not a witch-hunt, but an opportunity to ensure that all actors [in the industry] have a level playing field./span br //p p align="justify"span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;color:#333333;"In the meantime, the country has the distinction of being the first out of Mali, Nigeria; Ghana; and Nigeria listed here to have 60% of its shares sold bback to it/b by Telekom Malaysia by the end of September 2008 in a Settlement and Transfer agreement (STA). TeleGeography maintains that Soltelgui--Guinea's state-owned company--was established in 1993, only to be privatized in the same year that Ghana Telecom was born--1995, when Telekom Malaysia purchased 60% of a stake for $US45million. After a decade of ownership, it seems the Malasyian telco has had enough and is up and leaving "as part of a broader review of its international investment strategy tobr //span/pp align="justify"span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;color:#333333;"focus on geographic regions closer to home. Could the same happen some day in Ghana?/span /pp align="justify"br //piEnds/i p align="justify"span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;color:#333333;"b /b/span/p /divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24894530-6791590724057096968?l=twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• July 28, 2008
• 12:39

  Mali's SOTELMA to be privatised

   » ‎ From Technology in Tunis...to a Wireless WSIS
  div dir="ltr"brfrom: a href="http://www.itu.int/ituweblogs/treg/Mali+Sotelma+To+Be+Privatized.aspx"http://www.itu.int/ituweblogs/treg/Mali+Sotelma+To+Be+Privatized.aspx/abr br clear="all"div class="date"a class="archiveLinkStyle" href="http://www.itu.int/ituweblogs/treg/default,date,2008-07-13.aspx"img class="archiveLinkImageStyle" src="http://www.itu.int/ituweblogs/treg/themes/dasBlog/dayLink.gif" border="0"/anbsp;Sunday, July 13, 2008/div a name="a51d6bf8c-e5e3-446e-b363-603a4110dbbd"/a div class="itemTitleStyle" a class="TitleLinkStyle" rel="bookmark" href="http://www.itu.int/ituweblogs/treg/Mali+Sotelma+To+Be+Privatized.aspx"Mali - Sotelma to be privatized/a /div div class="itemBodyStyle" span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"In the context of the /spanspan style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"telecommunications sector reform, /spanspan style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"the Government of the Republic of Mali has decided to privatize Sotelma /spanspan style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"(Société des télécommunications du Mali) /spanspan style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"under the financial advice of the investment bank Linkstone Capital./spanspan style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"/spanspan style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" The privatisation strategy is as follows : A 51% stake will be sold to a Strategic Partner that meets the prequalification criteria;nbsp; 19% stake will be sold in a public offer ; 10% of the share capital will be reserved for the employees of Sotelma. The Government will hold a 20% share.brbrSee a href="http://www.itu.int/ituweblogs/treg/ct.ashx?id=51d6bf8c-e5e3-446e-b363-603a4110dbbdamp;url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.primature.gov.ml%2findex.php%3foption%3dcom_content%26task%3dview%26id%3d809%26Itemid%3d1"Press Release/abr brSource: a href="http://www.itu.int/ituweblogs/treg/ct.ashx?id=51d6bf8c-e5e3-446e-b363-603a4110dbbdamp;url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.primature.gov.ml"Portail du Gouvernement de la République du Mali/abr/span /div div class="itemCategoryLinksStyle" a class="categoryLinkStyle" href="http://www.itu.int/ituweblogs/treg/CategoryView,category,Africa.aspx"Africa/anbsp;|nbsp;a class="categoryLinkStyle" href="http://www.itu.int/ituweblogs/treg/CategoryView,category,Privatization%2fForeign%2BInvestment.aspx"Privatization/Foreign Investment/a /div Sunday, July 13, 2008 3:19:27 AM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00)nbsp; a class="permalinkStyle" rel="bookmark" href="http://www.itu.int/ituweblogs/treg/Mali+Sotelma+To+Be+Privatized.aspx"img title="Use the link of this item to make permanent references to this entry." class="permalinkImageStyle" src="http://www.itu.int/ituweblogs/treg/images/itemLink.gif" alt="#" border="0"/anbsp; nbsp; nbsp;|nbsp; spanRelated posts:bra class="relatedPostLinkStyle" href="http://www.itu.int/ituweblogs/treg/Guinea+New+Telco+Regulation+Agency.aspx"Guinea - New Telco Regulation Agency/abra class="relatedPostLinkStyle" href="http://www.itu.int/ituweblogs/treg/Africa+African+Association+Of+Telecommunications+Regulators+Created.aspx"Africa - African Association of Telecommunications Regulators created/abr a class="relatedPostLinkStyle" href="http://www.itu.int/ituweblogs/treg/Burkina+Faso+IFC+To+Support+Incumbent.aspx"Burkina Faso - IFC to support incumbent/abra class="relatedPostLinkStyle" href="http://www.itu.int/ituweblogs/treg/Africa+Eaccess+And+Usage.aspx"Africa - E-access and Usage/abr a class="relatedPostLinkStyle" href="http://www.itu.int/ituweblogs/treg/Algeria+Mobile+Operators+Shutting+Down+SIM+Cards.aspx"Algeria - mobile operators shutting down SIM cards /abra class="relatedPostLinkStyle" href="http://www.itu.int/ituweblogs/treg/Algeria+3rd+Generation+3G+Mobile+Communications+Licenses.aspx"Algeria - 3rd Generation (3G) mobile communications licenses/abr /span br /div div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24894530-187766219076445560?l=twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• July 24, 2008
• 10:02

  When will the National Communications Authority stand up?

   » ‎ From Technology in Tunis...to a Wireless WSIS
  a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SIhWiIpTONI/AAAAAAAABHc/jqEXhNDb1I8/s1600-h/telecomms-nigeria.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SIhWiIpTONI/AAAAAAAABHc/jqEXhNDb1I8/s400/telecomms-nigeria.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5226522511999711442" //abr /The a href="http://www.nca.org.gh/index.asp"NCA/a is an agency of the government with oversight to, in effect, regulate the telecommunications sector and implement terms of Ghana’s National Telecommunications Policy. According to the policy (2004) that can be downloaded from the Internet, while the Ministry of Communications is “responsible for the definition and elaboration of Government policy regarding telecommunications”, the NCA has a number of roles that it plays in implementing the policy, which include: “regulation of competition, including interconnection; tariff regulation consistent with Ministry policies; monitoring of operator activity, performance, and compliance”, and last but not least “consumer protection.”br /br /Reading the policy itself is enlightening, for the policy sounds robust. There is a section on “Principles of Transparent regulation” that explains that NCA “shall promote public participation in and awareness of its activities and ensure that the public has adequate access to sector information.” Only last week, I checked to see whether the website of the NCA that is still under construction, and with some limited information about the sector, has managed to offer some new information. There is still nothing. Neither is there what there ought to be--as stipulated in the policy: an Annual Report in collaboration with the Ministry of Communication publishing “up-to-date industry information…” made available “for public review.”br /br /strongProtection for Whom?/strongbr /In what would prove to be an unprecedented move last year, the Authority not only threatened ONETOUCH and MTN to stop selling re-charge cards, but that they should also improve the quality of their service, otherwise huge fines would be slapped on them. This was a historic feat of epic proportions it appeared, for even with the psychedelic MTN plane then-still-perched at the Tetteh-Quarshie interchange and MTN flags virtually drowning any Ghanaian ones, the Authority barked. At the eleventh hour, the Authority yielded, allowing both mobile providers get away with only an agreement to improve their services.br /br /I don’t know about you, but I don’t call that consumer protection.br /br /strongGiving customer service a new life?/strongbr /Then there is the recent case of a href="http://www.gtv.tv"Gateway Broadcasting Services (GBS)/a that entered the country in a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2008/05/my-mid-week-madness-gbs-goes-gaga-on.html"October/a last year. I do not know of anyone--and I know three official establishments around my workplace use GBS--that has been able to get through to GBS customer service. Beyond one who had given out his mobile number to subscribers (regrettably, he is no longer working for the company), no-one else can be contacted when one’s service is cut off -- either accidentally or not. When your payment has been made, the several landlines that have been given will forever put you through to a call centre operating outside Ghana in…Southern Africa, where, it stands to reason, there is a more clinical approach in dealing with you, given that the people are not in the country. As helpful and “nice” as they sound, nothing beats having Ghanaians help when I want my service re-connected , even if I have to have to lose my voice in doing so.br /br /The anecdotes aside, such continuous practices remain an indictment of the NCA’s work. As a regulator of the telecommunications industry, it behoves it to ensure standard regulation--as stipulated in the policy. To wit: "all public telecommunications operators shall be required to establish service level agreements with their customers, which identify the minimum quality of service standards to which customers are entitled, and the remedies and compensation available when service falls below such standards."br /br /strongConcrete steps/strongbr /The biggest step to ensuring regulation, in my humble opinion, would seem to be a clear and necessary *adoption* of the National Telecommunications Policy as a working document for all in the first place! Another issue is of toll-free numbers. The other day, the sixth biggest bank called to inform me that they now have a toll-free number that operate 24/7. If banks can do it, why not our MDAs? And certainly, why not NCA? Just a small query: I noticed the toll-free number works on the ONETOUCH network for now. In the event of government passing through any privatisation of GT by way of a totally-unnecessary emergency bill, will Vodafone not seek to make profit by disbanding the toll-free nature that GT has a great interest in maintaining?br /br /strongNigeria’s NiTel to be Privatised…for Vodafone?/strongbr /As if the attempt to privatize Ghana’s national provider Ghana Telecom is insufficient, British-based Vodafone is ready to hit the Nigerian market with the acquisition of ECOWAS neighbour Nigeria’s only landline provider. Rumours and accusations of the phone company being “beleaguered” and “inefficient” don’t wash with me. a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SIhWsf9XZNI/AAAAAAAABHk/o_ybdgy7sug/s1600-h/news20030701-1.gif"img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SIhWsf9XZNI/AAAAAAAABHk/o_ybdgy7sug/s400/news20030701-1.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5226522690056578258" //aThey are code-words for any excuse to privatize. An article in Nigeria’s *Punch” newspaper actually goes further arguing that: “…we can be certain about one thing: NITEL is currently bedeviled[sic] by multifaceted problems. These problems include malfunctioning lines, erratic billing system, poor customer satisfaction, infrastructural decay and a backlog of worker’s salaries…” It seems to me that chance would be a fine thing were NiTel to escape privatization.br /br /strongNiTel Privatisation Not New/strongbr /As far back as May 2002, then-President Obasanjo was planning a divestiture of the state-run phone company. It had been scheduled for March of that year, but had to be postponed for September 2002. It is interesting to note that still at that time, 51% was what was being offered to the so-called strategic investors!br /br /On a more serious note, whereas the incumbent Ghanaian administration has put forth 70% of GT to be privatized, even the horror stories associated with NiTel have warranted 50% to Vodafone. Why such discrepancy one wonders? Is it that Ghana Telecom has more of these calamities at its doorstep than NiTel? Let’s examine them for a second. Last time I looked, GT was offering broadband4u (broadband4u.com.gh); dialup4u; ExZeed company which offers 24hour service to ONETOUCH subscribers, where MTN has not a 24-hr hotline, and Tigo’s is non-existent (exists only as a number); a mobile provider since 2000 (albeit itself bedeviled with astronomical prices when it started, with sim cards then going for around GHC150!); Ghana Telecom University; EasyFone (which enables landlines to be set up more easily than ever before).br /br /According to the reports I’ve been reading, M-Tel, NiTel’s mobile operation that is a year younger than NiTel (having been established on October 2001), has only 176,000 subscribers. Compare that to MTN Nigeria that has 15,873,000 active lines. Switch to Ghana, and we find that where MTN Ghana is around 4 million subscribers, with a href="http://www.onetouch.com.gh"ONETOUCH/a around 1.4m. That is subscribers over one million, yet Nigeria’s is able to attract only a fraction. Despite this, it is being sold for 50%!br /br /Is it me, or is there something odd about the whole rationale of the GT purchase?br /br /strongStill always about politics?/strongbr /Then I think, and think some more, and remember how early last year, South Africa’s Standard Bank, operating under Stanbic Bank, was so keen to take overa href="http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=130618" state-owned Agricultural Development Bank (ADB)/a. One of its main motivations for the attempted sale (which incidentally, the government, according to financial papers two weeks ago have *de-prioritized*) was so that it could use the entry of Ghana as a gateway to penetrate the Nigerian market. A year ago today, Reuters reported that Standard Bank had bought a part of Nigeria’s IBTC Chartered Bank Plc, which expertise is in investment banking with 55 branches across Nigeria. Standard Bank spokeswoman Kim Howard would say that "If you are going to have a pan African strategy, you have to include Nigeria."br /br /Looks like this time, they decided to strike Nigeria after an attempted one here in Ghana. Whether they will succeed remains moot. Whatever will happen with the sale of GT, it has become crystal-clear that the stage has certainly been set for a new revolution before our very eyes.br /br /Forget the Industrial Revolution. We are all sitting at the cusp of a revolution that implicates a sector so critical to our lives we could never have imagined. To think that a consortium of former MTN executives are bidding—so the telecoms newsletter Balancing Act reports – for NiTel is not just a reflection of the motivation of big people with big capital, but where the next wars might be fought. Forget your Cold War. Prepare yourself for the a href="http://www.africanloft.com/new-country-for-telecoms-men/"Telecoms Wars/a.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24894530-6146239881581661196?l=twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• July 10, 2008
• 16:05

  Vodafone’s Purchase of Ghana Telecom: Matters Arising

   » ‎ From Technology in Tunis...to a Wireless WSIS
  a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SHY0B2Rr7oI/AAAAAAAABFI/rBmimGpG6ys/s1600-h/nokia6300+090.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SHY0B2Rr7oI/AAAAAAAABFI/rBmimGpG6ys/s400/nokia6300+090.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5221418024336879234" //abr /The 70% acquisition by Vodafone of state-owned Ghana Telecom may be a done-and-dusted deal, subject only now to parliamentary approval in the august house. There are, however, serious issues arising that merit some consideration.br /br /First of all, one would have to be from Mars not to know that this is an election year. After the announcement was made in 2006 to privatise, why is it only now that the putative sale has gone through, some five months before general elections? Secondly, despite the fact that there was a breather after France Telecom and Portugal Telecom were rejected some months back, at what point did Vodafone up and decide to make the bid, which, if we believe the opposition, was a non-starter, on account of the fact that there were other bidders ready to pay more than the $960million? br /br /In December 2007, Kenya, where Vodafone operates as a mobile operator under Vodafone Kenya, was in the concluding stages of privatising state-owned Telkom Kenya, with the winning bidders France Telecom taking control by 21 December, 2007. The uncanny similarity of an opaque bidding process coupled with a privatisation so close to general elections makes for an explosive coincidence that is so serious it’s not funny. One might be tempted to think that this has nothing to do with Vodafone, till we read that an offshore-registered company by the name of Mobitelea was offered an opportunity to acquire 25% of Vodaphone Kenya Limited at the same price Vodafone had acquired them. This prompted civil society groups in Kenya to argue that “the privatisation of Telkom Kenya cannot…be deemed regular until the true picture of its ceding of [mobile provider] Safaricom shares to Vodafone Kenya is unravelled and rectified.”br /br /Here, there is little proof that anything irregular has gone on despite the manner in which the sale went through so quickly, but reading the *Financial Times* account of the sale was sufficient to prompt speculation that given that the country is experiencing a budget deficit, the government might have seen a sale so close to the election as an opportunity to make amends around the economy.br /br /bPractices elsewhere/bbr /Still, whilst Kenya can talk about Vodafone Kenya bidding for a part of Safaricom, Ghana cannot even talk about a Ghanaian consortium ready to buy GT. This is one of the unique things about this privatisation. The online encyclopaedia Wikipedia tells us that Vodafone has three networks in the Middle East and Africa that are majority-owned: Egypt, Qatar and now Ghana. In the first case, state-owned Telecom Egypt owns 45% of Vodafone Egypt. In the Qatari case, Vodafone went in as a mobile operator, securing a 45% stake in Qatar Telecom, the Middle Eastern country’s second mobile licence provider. When we come to Ghana, a significant 70% was not only at stake, but also of our state-owned provider, prompting one to wonder why such a high figure, and why the land-line provider? Reports in the Ghanaian media indicate that Globacom had also made a bid, but had to settle for second best through a mobile service.br /br /bQuestions Unanswered/bbr /Those are not the only questions. Reports in the media suggest that the minority’s concern was that Vodafone comes in as a strategic investor with little experience in landline provision. That it is setting up new services in New Zealand, where Vodafone also operates, that look like landlines and mobile lines combined should not be sufficient to assuage our fears of how it will manage our broadband services, national fibre optic system, and others. What of our national security? There is anecdotal evidence of our state security – BNI -- monitoring landlines; how far will the security services go in allowing a mobile provider with plenty of capital to share the monitoring of our landlines? Thirdly, all mobile providers have had to pass through GT for their operations. Now that Vodafone’s acquisition is semi-complete, will Vodafone’s supreme interest be in the regulation of the other providers, or a rough-and-ready competitor alongside them? Will the lines be indefinitely blurred on all these issues?br /br /bMaking Gmail Safer/bbr /The London-based Guardian newspaper reports that Google is out to make life easier for all of us—at least those using gmail.com. Though the service has not been wholly rolled out yet, the new feature aims to make using sending and receiving emails through gmail a safe experience, especially for those using Firefox and Internet Explorer 7. The official Gmail blog says that “at the bottom of your inbox, you’ll see information about the time of the last activity on your account and whether it’s still open in another location.” There is also a link that will show “Recent activity”, indicating when and how you logged on (either POP3 or Mobile), as well as your IP address. It will also enable you sign out of all sessions remotely.br /br /I can say from personal experience that many a time, I’ve been able to simultaneously access my gmail account through the computer at work; through my mobile phone through ONETOUCH’s GPRS; as well as through an external device that can connect to the internet. It’s even possible to open two pages in gmail, where you can compose a message in one, and view incoming mails in another. This new system might clearly put paid to such practices which can only be the boon to a potential scammer.br /br /I can say for Yahoo that when you log into messenger online, it indicates to all of your friends that you are “mobile”. Anytime I have tried to access it on my work computer, I’ve had a prompt warning that I am logged in elsewhere. Such 2.5G services of GPRS enable us do more than we could ever dreamt of…br /br /b…including MMS on ONETOUCH/bbr /Given the discussions over the acquisition of Ghana Telecom, it was very easy for one to speculate that the bad service that ONETOUCH was providing was due to sabotage. That calls to the 24/7 hotline produced a degree of mendacity or ignorance by the call-service people that there was nothing wrong with the network only went to fuel speculation that sabotage was in the works. We may never know what caused ONETOUCH to provide customers with irregular service from the beginning of July up to a few days ago until they tell us. What I can say, though, is that despite the irregular service, which included the signals being at their very lowest, and beeps from phones that there was “no service”, the multi-media messaging service seemed to start working at that same time!br /br /I know only because when I took my sim card from my phone to put in another one, I received a message asking me to accept “multimedia settings”, which I reluctantly did. Deciding to test the waters, I sent my other GPRS-enabled ONETOUCH number an MMS. Within minutes, it had been sent, and I had received it on the other number. This was rather ironic, considering the ONETOUCH network itself was working poorly. Still, not one to complain too much, I tried again, and again. The MMS does work now. Contrary to the promotions that had gone out a couple of months ago about free MMS, which spun mendacity to its highest when it claimed that the servers were down, when in actual fact, the system had not been set up properly, the promotions that came with July have revealed a promising ONETOUCH user experience—provided we can make those calls!br /br /BUS airports lose more than 12,000 laptops a week/bbr /Whether you believe this information to be hyped up by computer manufacturer Dell or not, bottom line is that according to a survey by the Ponemon Institute, around 637,000 laptops are lost every year at US airports. The report maintains that “close to 10,278 laptops are reported lost every week at 36 of the largest US airports, and 65% of those lost are not reclaimed.”br /br /Dell has used this data to launch a security service that uses technologies such as Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking to recover lost laptops. Furthermore, the US Federal Trade Commission has produced a leaflet “Keeping Laptops From Getting Lost or Stolen”. A website is also available to this effect: [www.OnGuardOnline.govbr] /br /ENDsdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24894530-1259991346492878720?l=twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• June 05, 2008
• 11:13

  2007 Africa - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband Overview

   » ‎ From Technology in Tunis...to a Wireless WSIS
  a href="http://www.budde.com.au/buddereports/4392/2007_Africa_-_Telecoms_Mobile_and_Broadband_Overview.aspx"http://www.budde.com.au/buddereports/4392/2007_Africa_-_Telecoms_Mobile_and_Broadband_Overview.aspx/abr div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24894530-6695915702899456381?l=twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• May 19, 2008
• 12:10

  Fwd: UN'S INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY BODY TO FOCUS ON FOUR MAJOR CONCERNS

   » ‎ From Technology in Tunis...to a Wireless WSIS
  link to Global Alliance: a href="http://www.un-gaid.org/en/node/124?page=3"http://www.un-gaid.org/en/node/124?page=3/abrbrdiv class="gmail_quote"---------- Forwarded message ----------brFrom: b class="gmail_sendername"/b lt;a href="mailto:UNNews@un.org"UNNews@un.org/agt;br Date: 2008/5/18brSubject: UN#39;S INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY BODY TO FOCUS ON FOUR MAJOR CONCERNSbrTo: a href="mailto:news2@secint00.un.org"news2@secint00.un.org/abrbrbrUN#39;S INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY BODY TO FOCUS ON FOUR MAJOR CONCERNSbr New York, May 18 2008 nbsp;6:00PMbr A leading United Nations body working to spread the benefits of information technology should concentrate on the four areas that most concern people around the world, the chair of that body said today.br br Craig Barrett, Chair of the UN Global Alliance for Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and Development, told the third annual meeting of the Global Alliance in Kuala Lumpur that people were most interested about: getting software and hardware, connectivity, local content and ICT education.br br The Global Alliance quot;should concentrate on programmes that focus on access,quot; such as public-private partnerships, community centres and ICT for schools, said Mr. Barrett, who is also the Chairman of Intel.br br It should concentrate quot;on the fundamentals of getting connectivity; on local content, which can create huge local economic possibilities; and on educating people on using the technology -- and there are marvellous new education programmes out there that are reaching millions of teachers.quot;br br The top UN official for economic and social affairs also called for a more focused scope. quot;The Global Alliance is at a turning point,quot; said Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Sha Zukang, whose department hosts the Alliance.br br quot;It has the brand -- it is a big name now. It has the recognition, the platform and the networks,quot; he told some 150 participants of the Alliance#39;s Strategic Council. quot;It has launched initiatives and partnerships that are already yielding initial results. It is now important to better focus the work of the Alliance on fewer activities of strong impact.quot;br br Maximus Ongkili, Malaysia#39;s Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation and co-chair of the meeting, said his country and the Global Alliance had a similar approach on the issue: both were involving all interested parties, mobilizing global partnerships, stressing the importance of human capital and emphasizing knowledge-sharing.br br quot;ICT is gaining importance in addressing climate change and the food crisis,quot; said International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré, a member of the 17-person Alliance Steering Committee. quot;On these issues, ICT is part of the solution, not part of the problem,quot; he said.br br The Alliance, which was launched in Kuala Lumpur in June 2006, had already achieved results, Mr. Barrett said, such as quot;improvements in education, health care and the ability of governments to communicate with their citizens.quot; A health-care project supported by the Alliance had won an award for the best application of ICT in India, he noted.br br Global Alliance Executive Coordinator Sarbuland Khan said that in the past year the body had organized or co-organized some 15 events involving over 6,000 participants, including the first-ever meeting bringing together the private sector and the UN on the issue of climate change.br br Created by the UN Secretary-General in 2006, the Global Alliance seeks to mobilize the human, financial and technical resources required to bridge major gaps in ICT infrastructure, services and applications across the world. Its main areas of focus are education, health, economic development and online government services. The Alliance is self-funded, and has been able to raise close to $1 million per year from governments, corporations, foundations and other sources.br br nbsp;2008-05-18 00:00:00.000br br ________________br br For more details go to UN News Centre at a href="http://www.un.org/news" target="_blank"http://www.un.org/news/abr br To change your profile or unsubscribe go to:br a href="http://www.un.org/news/dh/latest/subscribe.shtml" target="_blank"http://www.un.org/news/dh/latest/subscribe.shtml/abr /divbr div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24894530-8723991586701965207?l=twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• May 16, 2008
• 11:53

  OFCOM's report on tomorrow's wireless world

   » ‎ From Technology in Tunis...to a Wireless WSIS
  a href="http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/technology/overview/randd0708/"http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/technology/overview/randd0708//abr div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24894530-2015117917595706784?l=twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• May 05, 2008
• 10:56

  Sleepless Wireless in Accra (UNCTAD XII)

   » ‎ From Technology in Tunis...to a Wireless WSIS
  p class="mobile-photo"a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SB7n6kS-x1I/AAAAAAAAA_4/bGbG5uYltck/s1600-h/IMG_1212-701429.JPG"img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SB7n6kS-x1I/AAAAAAAAA_4/bGbG5uYltck/s320/IMG_1212-701429.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5196846013393848146" //a/pp class="mobile-photo"a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SB7n7ES-x2I/AAAAAAAABAA/KaWINVQbq9g/s1600-h/IMG_1223-703260.JPG"img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SB7n7ES-x2I/AAAAAAAABAA/KaWINVQbq9g/s320/IMG_1223-703260.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5196846021983782754" //a/pp class="mobile-photo"a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SB7n7kS-x3I/AAAAAAAABAI/AOgpRP8_wR0/s1600-h/IMG_1236-705152.JPG"img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SB7n7kS-x3I/AAAAAAAABAI/AOgpRP8_wR0/s320/IMG_1236-705152.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5196846030573717362" //a/pmeta [http-equiv="Content-Type"] content="text/html; charset=utf-8"meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CEMMANU%7E1.BEN%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"style lt;!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Verdana; panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:536871559 0 0 0 415 0;} @font-face {font-family:quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; panose-1:2 11 6 3 2 2 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:647 0 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:quot;quot;; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:quot;Times New Romanquot;; mso-fareast-font-family:quot;Times New Romanquot;;} p.MsoFooter, li.MsoFooter, div.MsoFooter {mso-style-link:quot;Footer Charquot;; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; tab-stops:center 3.0in right 6.0in; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:quot;Times New Romanquot;; mso-fareast-font-family:quot;Times New Romanquot;;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:windowtext; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} span.FooterChar {mso-style-name:quot;Footer Charquot;; mso-style-locked:yes; mso-style-link:Footer; mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; mso-ansi-language:EN-US; mso-fareast-language:EN-US; mso-bidi-language:AR-SA;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --gt; /style p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"bspan style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" lang="EN"Sleepless amp; Wireless in Accra (UNCTAD XII)/span/b/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"bspan style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" lang="EN"By E.K.Bensah II/span/b/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"bspan style="font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" lang="EN"nbsp;/span/b/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" lang="EN"I had the privilege of being a participant at the just-ended UNCTAD XII conference. In my view, it brought into very sharp relief not just how sophisticated international conferences have become, but how far the information society has come of age./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" lang="EN"nbsp;/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" lang="EN"When I first started writing about the information society, I could almost imagine how high eyebrows might be raised at the prospect of such a society, where everyone is connected 24/7. Glitches notwithstanding, throughout the UNCTAD conference proper, that is exactly *how* connected we were. This is not some kind of digital exuberance; this is the reality of the twenty-first century, where ubiquitous internet connectivity is instrumental in our homes, work and private lives./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" lang="EN"nbsp;/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" lang="EN"span style=""nbsp;/spanTake the case of a colleague from a sister organisation in Geneva. Throughout the gathering, he was behind his laptop—either at the makeshift secretariat that had been set up for NGOs at the NGO centre – or in the official plenaries and roundtables making notes that he needed to collate and send back to Switzerland for publication. He was far from the only one. Back in the eighties when I would hit my pubescent period – before wireless and when I was even too young to know what international conferences were about – I re-call seeing on television people carrying huge notebooks and pens all over the place. /span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" lang="EN"nbsp;/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" lang="EN"Today, the laptop is *de rigueur*. In other words, it has become a necessity not just by dint of its portability, but its utility, for if a laptop were useful only for playing DVDs and games, they would find precious space in people's luggage for meetings and conferences. That these portable devices have come to represent the (portable) version of what you would get on a desktop – in the manner in which it offers word processing and picture-upload capability and transfer (multimedia) among many other things – is one of main reasons why they have been recognised as important communication tools./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" lang="EN"nbsp;/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"bspan style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" lang="EN"Battery woes/span/b/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" lang="EN"This is not to say that the pen and paper are dead—far from it—for one challenge about laptops is their battery. Very few are able to offer more than two hours battery life; when they do, it means you are paying rather steeply for a second battery. At UNCTAD XII, the pen and paper were great complements, for they enabled one to jot down ideas and prepare questions in a way that the laptop would not./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" lang="EN"nbsp;/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" lang="EN"Then there is, of course, the A/C cord; the colleague in question had an issue of his cord being broken. It necessitated a change to a two-pin one for his trip back to Geneva. For the two days that that cord was not fixed, he could only use his laptop for some twenty-odd minutes, ensuring that he save every vestige of power he could. At the very worst, he worked on the desktop computers that the UNCTAD secretariat had provided the centre, so that the laptop could be spared. He did say one interesting thing that precipitated a lot of food for thought. When it was suggested him that he use my chord to beef up the power in his laptop, he decried how "that would force me to work even more." At one point he even lamented having broken from his work for dinner, when his laptop was waiting for him (to do some work)!/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" lang="EN"nbsp;/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"bspan style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" lang="EN"Creating 24/7 work?/span/b/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" lang="EN"While these may serve as funny anecdotes, in my view, it is also symptomatic of what I consider to be a worrying trend on how laptops and portable devices have legitimised the need to work *anytime*, which is not such a bad thing if you are a workaholic. For those of us that are not, that time for a break is critical for the soul in more ways than you can imagine, plus the fact that you get to take a break from staring or blinking incessantly at a screen that is bound to cause headache-inducing issues for the UN itself. I am not quite sure that the UN's International Labour Organisation would be very happy to see conference delegates working into the night to deliver reports on a conference of a sister organisation!/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" lang="EN"nbsp;/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" lang="EN"In all seriousness, at UNCTAD XII, the information society was well and truly alive—and very palpable. At the meetings, the laptops came in all shapes and sizes, and were, shall-we-say, well-ensconced on thighs (of all shapes and sizes) probably burning them against the very cold air conditioning flowing from the gargantuan systems that had been set up. Some of those who had their laptops on them were producing semi-transcriptions; others were writing draft reports; many others were simply writing notes from the meeting by capturing the essence of the discussions, with a view to sending them off to their organisations. /span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" lang="EN"nbsp;/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" lang="EN"Some of these reports would turn into news items—and even blog posts—as exemplified by the Minneapolis-based Institute of Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) that produced no less than three rather detailed posts of the Civil society output as blog posts from 17-19 April and the main conference. The posts were produced by two of the staff that were here in Accra from Geneva and the US./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" lang="EN"nbsp;/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"bspan style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" lang="EN"Africa (Bloggers) Disunited?/span/b/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" lang="EN"The blogging that was done by a few Western NGOs that were present at UNCTAD XII were so good that they put into shame the quasi non-existent blog entries by African civil society. Regrettably, parts of the African contingent spent quite a bit of time complaining *not* about the wireless so much as the mostly -English output of the civil society aspect of the conference. This was expressed in list-serves that were purposefully set up to facilitate communication among us, and face-to-face encounters. It was clearly a challenge that needs to be confronted. /span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" lang="EN"nbsp;/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" lang="EN"Even more challenging however, was the extent of blogging by Africans. After the end of the conference, I surfed the blogosphere for inputs by Africans on UNCTAD XII. The owner of Africanloft.com, a popular social networking-cum-blogging site, emailed me to say that he was there at UNCTAD XII, and hinted that he would write a more comprehensive post after the conference. I only got his mail when I sent him two posts for upload, while simultaneously decrying the state of non-blogging by those who wrote about the African Union summit in June last year – also right here in Accra. Why were these same bloggers—even if they were unable to make it to Accra—not blogging about the issues discussed? Or was it a case of conference-fatigue by African bloggers?/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" lang="EN"nbsp;/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" lang="EN"I daresay my European and Western counterparts might have also suffered from conference-fatigue, hence their departure even before the closing of the conference—but still they stayed to write reports, send emails, and blog./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" lang="EN"nbsp;/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" lang="EN"It seems to me that there remains a lot of work that needs to be done insofar as blogging about conferences are concerned. In 2001, when I also had the privilege of attending the UN Conference on Least Developed Countries in Brussels, Belgium, I knew nothing about blogging—even if it was not so hot in Europe at the time – but I regret not having captured much of the conference electronically. In 2005 at the World Summit on Information Society, I produced almost a tome of sometimes-useless banter about Tunis and its people, as well as on the conference itself on my blog about Ghana./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" lang="EN"nbsp;/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" lang="EN"It has almost been three years, and the information society has progressed and advanced to degrees we never thought possible. With wireless, people can even send emails and write quick reports from the washroom! That is how ridiculously advantageous the society has become. /span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" lang="EN"nbsp;/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" lang="EN"All that said, there remain serious challenges, which include the extent to which apathy of bloggers contribute—or not—to the development of a more pluralistic information society. The West can afford to be apathetic, because of the many advances they have undergone; we in the developing world have less to be complacent about. To date, blogging remains one of the most democratising practices around for the Global South. If we as developing countries fail to maximise how it can help us foster a better society, then we might have gone wireless alright, but forever-sleepless in the search to make not just the information society, but society in general better for us all./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: quot;Trebuchet MSquot;; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" lang="EN"nbsp;/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"bispan style="font-size: 7pt; font-family: Verdana;"nbsp;/span/i/b/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"bispan style="font-size: 7pt; font-family: Verdana;"a href="mailto:twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com"twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com/a / span style=""nbsp;/spana href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com"ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/a /span/i/b/p div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24894530-7968381358779433859?l=twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• February 22, 2008
• 17:30

  The Unbearable Lightness of Blogging

   » ‎ From Technology in Tunis...to a Wireless WSIS
  divOh the tomes! The tomes I have written in my head, and in my heart. Not to forget on paper, as well!;-)/div divnbsp;/div divRegrettably, the proverbial refrain of work has hit -- truly, madly, and deeply. And rather intensely./div divnbsp;/div divAs such, blogging has been light, and promises to be for the next w eek or so. Please bear with me./div divnbsp;/div divI am still around!/div divnbsp;/div divEnjoy the weekend,/div divnbsp;/div divKeep safe. Keep cool./div div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24894530-3012159385298525581?l=twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• February 15, 2008
• 10:01

  Microsoft-Yahoo: It Doesn’t Get Any More Epic than This

   » ‎ From Technology in Tunis...to a Wireless WSIS
  Like the Ghana-Nigeria game last week Sunday, it does not get any more epic than this—and I am not talking about today’s final.br /br /Computer-giant Microsoft has gone and done it again: it’s gone and made a proposal to acquire yet-another enterprise. This new catch is nothing less than the search engine “Yahoo”—and it wants to acquire it for $44.6bn. It might be too early to speculate on the modalities of this acquisition, but what is clear is that this latest move to take over YAHOO is a way of stymieing the competition that Google offers.br /br /At least that is the rumour going round. You have got to give it to the information society: its 24/7 access to information has made pundits of all of us. Little wonder therefore that the degree of speculation on Microsoft’s motive has been as rife. In the same vein, Microsoft’s move might come as little surprise given Yahoo’s reported falling profits. Reports from the financial media indicate Yahoo’s been approached before, with the latest being in February 2007. The Board of Directors at Yahoo would reject it.br /br /strongMicrosoft Bad Boy to Cash in on Yahoo in Freefall?br //strongThe situation at Yahoo in 2008 is a different matter altogether. With impending job cuts and profits that are predicted to only materialise in 2009, prospects of a boom for Yahoo are not going to happen any time soon. You can imagine that this has made Yahoo rather jittery. Question is: jittery enough to sell its soul to the devil?br /br /Make no mistake: Microsoft has delusions of grandeur that are so big it’s not funny. The European Commission had been behind the company’s tail since 1999, on account of Microsoft’s decision to force Internet Explorer browser on users, by bundling it with operating systems. Small wonder browsers like Netscape—as I reported last two weeks—have bitten the dust. Norwegian browser Opera had also made similar complaints to Brussels, home of the EU’s executive arm, and the EC lawyers have followed suit by slapping heavy fines on Microsoft. According to a press release on the Commission’s website of March 2004, “heavy” turned out to be a €497 million fine against Microsoft for “abusing its market power in the EU”. This, somehow, has not seemed to deter it.br /br /strongMicrosoft’s Got a Reason/strongbr /Microsoft sees a merger with Yahoo as a great way of taking over not just search engines (Google accounted for 56.3% of all Web searches in December, compared with a combined 31.5% for Microsoft and Yahoo) , but online advertising, which Google is reported to have handled brilliantly through its AdSense service. Should the deal go through, Microsoft will inevitably make even more money, and seek to compete directly with Google. For some strange reason, Yahoo had not cottoned onto this. It would prove to be its undoing, setting the stage for this explosive development that has left many technology insiders with baited breath.br /br /There is no question that search-engine Giant is cognisant of the developments, for it has made both public and private offers to both castigate the decision (on the grounds of being a threat to competition and stretching it to the point where it states this bid merits scrutiny by worldwide policy-makers), and conciliate Yahoo, by offering to partner it. Yahoo executives have bought time by coming out to say that nothing about the Microsoft merger is set in stone.br /br /strongGoogle’s Offer Yahoo Cannot Refuse/strongbr /Although it’s not great news for Yahoo, insiders predict that Yahoo being subsumed under Google—for all the mixed signals it might give off as conceding to Google its superiority in the search-engine world—would be far less harmful than under Microsoft.br /br /The idea that falling for Microsoft represents the quintessence of the Faustian pact cannot be any clearer when you read reports from users using the Yahoo-owned Flickr photo-sharing site writing in groups created on that service messages to Microsoft stating: “Keep your evil grubby hands off our Flickr.” Reports even indicate that users are threatening to dump Flickr if the merger is approved.br /br /What might probably go against Microsoft is a href="http://www.cnet.com"CNET/a News.com report that a federal district court in Washington, in 2001, ruled that the company had consistently violated the law “by stifling the threat to its monopoly position posed by Netscape, which popularized the Web browser.” The article maintains a suit was brought by the Clinton administration, but settled by the Bush one. The outcome, simply put, is that a federal court and a three-member team of technical experts monitor Microsoft’s behaviour.br /br /It goes without saying that this team will be seriously scrutinising this bid, for that Microsoft is being monitored suggests the manifestation of its delusions have been all-to-real for the past six years.br /br /For the rest of us as users, will it be the grass that suffers as two elephants (Google and Microsoft) battle it out (and note: I’m still not talking about the final game of CAN2008!)? After all, which Ghanaian is unaware of a Yahoo email account (whether Yahoo.com/yahoo.co.uk is moot); Yahoo Messenger and Yahoo groups? All of these unique add-ons/services have become part of the daily lingo that is part of the information society many of us in the developing countries have come to (sometimes) love and accept. Now, in the event of a Microsoft-Yahoo merger, what will happen to these services?br /br /At the time of writing, Google is offering to bail out Yahoo, whilst simultaneously discouraging it from going into the claws of Microsoft. A partnership between the two has been proposed, whereby Yahoo would outsource its search and advertising functions to Google, so that it could focus on its comparative advantages, which include mobile applications, social networking and content sharing. If this formula were to go ahead, the company would keep its independence.br /br /strongBattle not Over/strongbr /With prospects of Microsoft dominance in both the software and internet world, we are going to see many actors—like Google and the European Commission—that would be quick to avert this hostile takeover. Google, because of the threat it would represent in the search engine world—and less email (remember it was only in 2007 that Yahoo’s mail moved from 1GB to unlimited, when Google, since 2004, had been unlimited!) – and the EC, because it’s watching Microsoft like a hawk.br /br /As the web becomes a space where big scrambles are played out, we are certainly going to see more of these virtual mergers and acquisitions. If there was anytime a “Big Brother” was watching, it is now—and it’s on Microsoft.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24894530-7153640630538345056?l=twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com'//div
• 9:55

  Showcasing Ghana 2008 with ICT (2)

   » ‎ From Technology in Tunis...to a Wireless WSIS
  So, you are keen to show Ghana off to the world—especially after that resounding trounce by the Black Stars, of Morocco. Even if we are a week away from the finals of the 26th edition of CAN 2008, it is still never too late to do one’s bit for Mother Ghana.br /br /strongCamera Never Lies/strongbr /Your average digital camera of between 4-5 mega-pixels can take a close-up picture of even your television set. Maybe you were not at the stadium, but you would like to be original? Grab your camera, focus it on the TV set, and capture (replays of) the image of the symmetrical Essien-Muntari delivery for posterity.br /br /You can toe the line, if you are armed with your camera phone—but do bear in mind that unless you are holding a NOKIA N95, which already comes equipped with 5 megapixels (MP) your average camera phone will range from VGA--(640X480) to 2.0MP—enabled film quality. However, it will be a little less for wear—for the quality is never going to be tantamount to a dedicated digital camera.br /br /After you have captured that picture, you might want to consider creating a video capture. Your average digital camera (be it SAMSUNG, CANON, KODAK or less well-known brands) will be equipped with video, but your mobile phone is a different kettle of fish altogether. Whether the capacity is unlimited or not, its ability to record clips depends – yet again -- on the capacity of your SD card. I found out very recently that the ever-popular MOTOROLA RAZR V3 flip-phone does not accommodate this type of card, going to confirm the suspicion that the aesthetics of a phone in no way determines its quality.br /br /Once you’ve taken a video clip, you have to upload the picture somewhere. You can chose to store it on your computer or your laptop (if you have one). What you could also do is upload it onto the Internet. Question is where to?br /br /strongGee, this mail is good!/strongbr /First of all, Google’s PICASA is a great place to start. By going to picasaweb.google.com/m/ on your phone, you will be asked to input your email and password. It’s preferable that you have a google mail, or GMAIL, account. Gmail, to be frank, is all the rage these days. For the fact that you can check any of your emails (yahoo is the only one that remains problematic being checked in gmail) through the service, and have unlimited and ever-expanding space (right now, it’s 63.4 GB and counting!) makes it a boon to both the luddites and tech-savvy people who might be both awed and impressed by the extent of this technology.br /br /For instance, I have the priviledge of being able to check my work email through GMAIL—and respond to those mails accordingly. Excuses of not having received emails are (regrettably!) a thing of the past—as most people are cottoning onto how the service works. That my boss has now asked for assistance on the setting up of GMAIL has personally reminded me my bag of excuses around emails never being received have comprehensively bitten the dust!br /br /In all seriousness, with your gmail account, you can access picasa on the web, and begin your uploading of those beautiful pictures of re-plays by our national team.br /br /Secondly, FLICKR.com—a photo-sharing site—is also another great place to go. By clicking on [www.flickr.com] , you can read up more about how to upload from your mobile phone. It might interest you to know that the top 5 camera phones uploading on that mobile site are: NOKIA N95; Apple I-Phone; Nokia N73; Sony Ericsson K800i and W810i. Incidentally, this is not a Google product--prepare to have your YAHOO email accounts ready for use on this site!br /br /In order to avoid wasting more chances than striker Asamoah-Gyan in the Namibia-Ghana game last week, it might be a good idea to consider creating an online site where your thoughts can be recorded in reverse chronological order—or a blog.br /br /strongReady to Hit the Blogosphere/strong?br /For the past five years, blogs have also been the latest wrinkle, with one statistic claiming that in early 2007, bloggers would hit the 100 million point. You can imagine that if most Westerners are experimenting with blogs, then a fraction of that number will be by non-Western once, including African ones. This should not discourage you in setting up your own blog. A five-minute process, you can set up one on TYPEPAD.com; WORDPRESS.com and BLOGGER.com. The latter is one of the more popular platforms, and, you can probably guess, owned by Google.br /br /Given that periods likes these turn the average citizen into an armchair strategist and well-experienced coach, why not take the opportunity to showcase some of your analysis and technical skills by writing and maintaining a blog—today!br /br /strongConnecting Which People?/strongbr /Nokia says that it’s done a survey, in which more than 50% of respondents in India, Pakistan and nearly 30% in Vietnam have indicated that they share, or would share, their mobile phone with family or friends. I don’t see Africa there, yet Nokia is keen to sell these to so-called emerging markets. Maybe Nigeria might get a look-in. Even so, no-one asked me whether I felt that would infringe my privacy. Whether it’s a cooked survey of the middle class within these countries or not, it can be argued that Nokia is living up to its slogan of connecting people by launching two new mobile phones—the Nokia 2600 and Nokia 1209.br /br /Both phones are designed to be shared by five people, and both handsets would come with multiple phone books (one per person) and a cost-tracker, which would enable one see how much they have spent on calls.br /br /The article from which I found this information claims this is an indication of “how in tune Nokia is with emerging markets.” I am not so convinced. What I do believe, though, is that there might be some value about phone-sharing, in the sense that an increasing number of families are buying mobile phones for the entire family—and not just the household. It’s probably about economics and convenience. The practicalities inherent in phone sharing may be challenging – ensuring that everyone gets to use the phone, for example – but, undoubtedly, we are led to believe that this is the way.br /br /strongThere will be Bluetooth/strongbr /The new Nokia 2600 comes with a VGA camera (640X480), MP3 Player and FM radio, and will retail for €65.00, or around GHC80.00. The Nokia 1209, conversely, will go for €35.00. Just so that the phone-sharing makes sense, Nokia will most definitely be including nothing less than…Bluetooth.br /br /It is interesting to note that despite the growing dominance of Bluetooth technology, there appears not to be any infra-red—unlike even some of the latest NOKIAs. Can we say that this means it’s dying a certain death?div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24894530-4485127435249239119?l=twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com'//div
• 9:44

  Showcasing Ghana 2008 with ICT (I)

   » ‎ From Technology in Tunis...to a Wireless WSIS
  I had thought that given that it has been exactly a week since Sulley Muntari saved Ghana from disgrace at the 90th minute in the Ghana-Guinea game, normalcy would set in. Then I remembered that as Leonardo di Caprio’s character as a mercenary in Blood Diamonds said to an inquisitive American journalist investigating those diamonds, TIA-- or “This is Africa”.br /br /More specifically, “This is Ghana”, where there are variations of normalcy as far as soccer is involved, but even more so, when football comes home. It is clear that on the ICT front, given the enthusiasm surrounding a href="http://www.ghanacan2008.com"CAN2008/a and the matches, there will continue to be more text messaging than ever.br /br /Last Friday when I was leaving the office for home, I overheard a colleague exclaim to another that “I’ll call you when [Ghana] wins”, adding shortly after that “as for that, I can spare my credits!” Undoubtedly, the camaraderie created by the soccer fiesta is a magnificent reminder of how you most definitely do not need NOKIA to connect people via ICT (tools)!br /br /Whilst we are making a lot of noise about showcasing Ghana, might we turn to some of existing sites out there helping to do just that.br /br /strongEverywhere You Gobr //strongIt’s true—it’s everywhere you go; they’ve even got a yellow un-flyable plane at the Tetteh-Quarshie interchange – but they are there. They also happen to be headline sponsors of Ghana’s national team--the Black Stars. Not all is necessarily bad on the MTN front, however. On your mobile phone—through GPRS—you can visit the company’s website bmtnfootball.com/mobile/b. There, you can see summary of results of the latest game, including the score line, and a commentary of how the game went as it was being played.br /br /The London-based Guardian website’s football page on football.guardian.co.uk is also a place to check. I don’t know which news site started the ball-by-ball commentary first, but I re-call that in the 2006 World Cup, those monitoring the Ghanaian games for the Guardian site brought a whole different feel to their game. Coverage of The Cup of African Nations is no exception—for the website, considered one of the most popular online newspapers around, is sure to thrill. You can also get in on your mobile by going to bfootball.guardian.co.uk/pda/b.br /br /Last June, I opted to leave the oft-inanity of Ghanaian radio to listen more to the BBC World Service. I knew I was right in doing so—as are many BBC listeners, who know they are getting unparalleled quality news and commentary when they listen to news or sport. Just to highlight: a colleague, disappointed by the lack of running commentary for GTV’s coverage of the Ghana-Guinea game last Sunday, decided he’d stick with the station and listen to the commentary from no other than the BBC World Service’s station on 101.3FM.br /br /All that said, accessing CAN2008 score lines and reading up about the tournament on your mobile may prove to be a bit more challenging for your mobile. This is because whereas you can access BBC’s African football website on an easy-to-remember URL like bbc.co.uk/africanfootball, on your mobile, it’s no walk in the park; it’s more like a run through badly-cut grass: bnews.bbc.co.uk/mobile/bbc_sport/football/internationals//b! Once you get there, simply click on “Africa Cup of Nations 2008”, and get access to the best of BBC Sport. br /br /Finally, Ghana almost passes the online test with the official Ghanacan2008.com website. Small trick, however, is that you need to access that site via this URL: ghanacan2008.com/fixtures.php. The site is not designed specifically to accommodate mobile phones, hence the need to add the “PHP” extension, which is optimal for computer-based (HTML) web browsers. If you’re looking for news, pictures, and more, you are sure to find it here. Small caveat on the pictures is that the output will be optimized if your phone has a 640X480 or VGA screen, or higher.br /br /strongGovernment is Coming Home!/strongbr /Forget the fact that the ever-popular social networking tool that is FACEBOOK is all the rage these days. Be afraid; be very afraid -- for government is coming closer to home than you might ever want it to. Over-the-moon by the opportunities inherent in the so-called Web 2.0 world that we live in now, where social networking is globalised, and where everyone can connect together in some sort of digital exuberance, Western governments are leaving behind e-government, and replacing it with Web 2.0.br /br /The managing director and COO of Government Insights that came out with a report about this trend says: “Gov 2.0 will replace e-gov as governments seek to gain additional value from citizen interaction and business transactions.” Inevitably, the cue here is the interactivity enshrined in the Web 2.0, which governments are keen to exploit. I specifically use “exploit”, because there’s a double-edged sword inherent within this trend. To me as a private individual, it’s screaming “where’s my privacy!.” I can expect, however, that those seeking to implement it are thinking that it will foster “greater participation and dialogue with citizens.”br /br /What I can personally tell you about the experience with a href="http://www.facebook.com"Facebook/a is that the more Web 2.0 applications are added to the system, the more it has put me off visiting—never mind using Facebook! Being bombarded by “Funwalls” and messages sent to “all friends” and being asked to send imaginary drinks to friends no longer becomes a boon to the pretenders of tech-“savviness”! I can very well imagine government departments adding so many applications to their websites to “enhance dialogue with citizens” they end up eating their own tail, and realizing that Web 2.0 just might be the future—but not for governments.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24894530-516834533918688826?l=twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com'//div
• 9:40

  When Banking on IT Goes Wrong

   » ‎ From Technology in Tunis...to a Wireless WSIS
  Last two weeks, I was a poster-child for disappointment and frustration towards that payment system, which most of us have become used to; and that which we like to call the ATM, or Automated Teller Machine system. In short, the system failed me – much to my chagrin – and at a crucial time when I needed it most.br /br /It all started with a trip downtown into Accra with the family, which called for a stop by the ATM of my bank. When I got the error message from the first ATM, I shrugged it off, feeling it was one of those things: maybe the festive period had spawned a huge number of withdrawals and the system had heated up. My mind began to change when I went to the second ATM some 10 minutes away—still unable to withdraw.br /br /It was with the third ATM somewhere in town when the frustration begun to build. Seeing frustrated customers shaking their heads and muttering not-so-sweet nothings to themselves compounded the arrival at a decision that something was awry with the ATMs. The straw on the camel’s back was at Airport Shell, when the money pretended to be coming, only for the ATM to issue me a slip of paper, claiming I had “exceeded the daily limit”! This took the biscuit, and prompted me to get to my phone to my bank. They explained engineers were working on the system, and I wondered why they didn’t have the courtesy to have a message displayed at the ATMs that works were in, say, progress.br /br /Far beyond the lack of customer service Ghanaians are wont to rightly complain about, this experience underscored—yet again—the extent to which we have thrown caution of IT and ICT tools to the wind, fully embracing such-systems – with all their imperfections – as if our life depended on it, all the time forgetting that, like this experience, it needs must let us down.br /br /I believe that it will let us down because it is a system created and maintained by human beings. Consequently, the margin of error of its perfection will be greater on some days. This is no mere philosophical pondering but, in my view, a reminder of the importance of complementing old practices – such as keeping money on oneself – with new ones, where we rely on the banks to take care of our money for us. The day the money “refuses”—or fails—to come out is the day we find ourselves as poster children of ridicule. We can certainly avoid it!br /br /strongWhere’s that Mobile?/strongbr /One thing we certainly cannot avoid is the usage of our phones this year. As it has become an indispensable tool, so has the need to further maximise the functions on it.br /br /This week, we turn to the generation of phones that started using USB connections. Although as far back as 2003/2004, mobile phones, like NOKIA, could be connected to the computer, the cable used was one that was specific to NOKIA. USB connection was introduced to the computer around 1997, but it would be from 2003, early 2004 that they would begin to be commonplace on mobile devices, like NOKIA and MOTOROLA.br /br /Even today that many phones are USB-compatible, few people are chosing to use their mobile devices…as mass storage devices. Quite a number of my colleagues, for example, both own USB flash disk and a mobile phone—but none take the opportunity to exploit the mass storage capability that the phones offer. There are two main reasons for this.br /br /First of all, if the phone has, say, 20 MB space, there is evidently little incentive to use it as a mass storage device. Arm your phone with a memory card, and you might contemplate it. I suspect however that this activity exercises few people’s minds when they’re going to bed!br /br /Secondly, even if you do have, say, 1 GB space on your phone, which is still not de rigeur for many mobile phones, the contemplation of it as a storage device when you have your USB flash disk purposefully for storing data will not be a visceral act.br /br /In my view, these are the two predominant reasons why the trend towards storing important data on your mobile phone has not become the norm. With time, however, this trend will probably not catch on—except for those who consider themselves tech-savvy, and make that extra effort to maximise and exploit that humble of devices.br /br /strongSmile, you’re on candid camera/strongbr /Whether you’re a commuter, driver, or passenger, consider yourself a walking reference if you have a camera phone. Even if you are not used to taking pictures with your phone, the very fact that there is one at all on your phone gives you sufficient power to be able to make real impacts and contributions.br /br /Back in 2003 when camera phones were either on high-end phones or non-existent, a close relative of mine who was involved in a serious car accident, which saw the-said relative end up with broken feet, was able to capture the scene of the accident—with a standard digital camera, that had video recording. The video would go to prove the guilt of the driver that slammed into the car from the opposite direction, because the son who was a passenger had the presence of mind to capture the scale of the accident and damage caused before anyone – witnesses or otherwise -- could unwittingly tamper with the evidence.br /br /It would be ridiculous to think that one would carry a camera to capture accidents, but it’s clear from this very real and near-fatal accident that the digital camera was as critical a witness as the two relatives involved in the accident!br /br /More recently, the President’s accident in November 2007 was a moot case, for witnesses on the scene were able to take pictures almost-instantaneously. Some claim they even took video coverage on their mobile phones. As I was in the vicinity leaving a work-related assignment, I arrived on the scene some twenty minutes after the incident. Still, armed with my standard camera, I was able to capture quite a few memorable shots, which I uploaded on my blog. Within two days, the number of people who had typed “kufuor and accident” and happened on my blog surpassed 50.br /br /Whatever the case, it is clear that whoever you are, and wherever you may find yourelf, the phone has become an accessory to capturing a little piece of history that can assist you in an accident, or simply bring a joy to your face—something much needed this New Year!br /br /br /strongBye-Bye Netscape/strongbr /It was sad news early this year, when reports came in that internet browser, a href="http://www.netscape.com"Netscape/a, is dying a slow death, on account of the new business focus by its parent, America Online (AOL). The new focus by AOL is for the company to be more ad-supported, and, apparently, there is no room for Netscape within this new focus. Furthermore, the success of the Mozilla Foundation, which pioneered the successful a href="http://www.firefox.com"FIREFOX browser/a, will continue to be subsidised by AOL at the expense of Netscape. The long and short of it all is that AOL is pulling the plug on Netscape, preferring for people to use FIREFOX. All that said, the portal netscape.com will still be available for those who hark after the good old times of when Netscape ruled before Internet Explorer came to steal its thunder.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/24894530-2429708356473886128?l=twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com'//div