About GhanaBlogging

BloggingGhana (BloGh) is a group of bloggers and social media users writing out of Ghana or the Ghanaian experience. It is also an aggregator website that collects the latest posts and tweets from our members. Since June 2011 we are a registered non-profit organization with a executive council working towards the following objectives

1.  Serving as a forum for bloggers in Ghana to network and exchange ideas
2. Building capacity among bloggers in Ghana
3. Accessing new audiences for our blogs through a mutual website (aggregator) and other activities
4. Promoting citizen journalism in Ghana
5. Educating the general public in Ghana on the opportunities of social media

The idea of starting BloGh came out of a meet-up of bloggers on 24 July 2008.  To that first meeting, organized by bloggers Sandra Crabbe and Kajsa Hallberg Adu, eight bloggers were invited.

We wrote:

“we would like to bring the Ghanaian blog community together in real life! There is so much to say…about our green homeland, if Blogger is better than  WordPress, if labels are useful, how best to boost and count traffic,  what Internet cafées are fast and of course how blogging changes your life…”

We have a mailing list where we discuss group matters and share blogging tips and links. Currently, 58 people subscribe to the emails and discuss online. Although most of those bloggers reside in Ghana, some also live outside its borders.

Since the first meeting in 2008, we have met once a month, usually on a Saturday. We try to meet in different locations in Accra to educate ourselves about the city, but lately we have geared to the few places that offer free WiFi. We have since October 2008 done forthnightly “universal topics” under the heading “A view out of Ghana” inspired by the annual “Blog Action Day”. Since 2010 we do themed meetings like “Legal risks of blogging” or  “Citizen Media”.

We have an aggregator website that collects posts from our members (ghanablogging.com). One year after the first meeting, we had more than 3000 posts written on 61  blogs. Two years later, we had more than 5870 posts written on 74 blogs. Three years later we has too many posts to count from 153 blogs. Four years later, we have 263 blogs on our aggregator.

Since the inception of BloGh many friendships, projects and business ventures have emerged from the group or with help from this network that spans sectors, professions and social groups. Currently, BloGh organizes BlogCamp 2012 and a social-media drive for the Ghanaian 2012 general elections, under the name of #GhanaDecides.

Our Vision

Ghanablogging exists to:

• Create Friendships
• Share useful blogging tips
• Share and generate traffic
• Promote blogging
• To carry out common projects

We are a network of:

• Ghanaian bloggers,
• Bloggers in Ghana and/or
• Bloggers who blog about Ghana regularly

Every member should:

1. Be on the ghanablogging.com aggregator
2. Use the badge (which will be available in different sizes)
3. Be on the emailing list
4. Agree with our vision and definition

Approval of New Members

In the future, blogs that wish to join our network has to be approved by a Ghanablogging meeting. What we will look out for is

1. Connection to Ghana (see ”We are” above)
2. Good presentation
3. A blog that has been in existence for at least 1 month and is updated regularly

Someone who is not allowed will be notified and told the reasons (1,2 or 3 or a combination) and can re-apply.