Network connecting people and organizations for Africa

Kabissa (our name means completely in kiswahili) is a volunteer-led non-governmental organization founded in 1999.

We help African civil society organizations to put Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to work for the benefit of their communities.

We do this by providing an online platform where people and organizations working in Africa can showcase themselves and connect with each other.

Who we are and where we work

The 1500+ organizations in the Kabissa network are active throughout Africa...

Northern Africa, Western Africa, Eastern Africa, Central Africa, Southern Africa, Indian Ocean Islands

... and are working in a range of crucial issue areas:

Advocacy and Policy, Arts and Culture, Conflict Resolution, Direct Social and Humanitarian Services, Economic Development and Poverty Reduction, Education, Environment, Gender, Governance, Health, Human Rights and Democracy, Media and Journalism, Microfinance, Technology, Training and Capacity Building, Youth

You can also find organizations via the interactive map and database search.

Kabissa's organizational headquarters are on Bainbridge Island, WA in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, although the organization operates mostly online and boasts contributors from all over the world. The founder of the organization is Tobias Eigen from Germany/USA who led Kabissa together with Kim Lowery from 2002-2007.

Tobias currently leads Kabissa from Berlin, Germany while he works on his PhD and is returning to Bainbridge Island next year.

The Membership Manager is Ghislain Siewe from Cameroon in Fairfax, Virginia.

Georgene Scott on Bainbridge Island is in charge of book keeping.

Benefits of Kabissa Membership

Personal Account

Maintain a Personal Profile page
Subscribe to Kabissa e-mail Newsletters and special mailings
Exchange private messages with other people on the site
Post to your personal blog and add your comments to blog posts by others
Create as many Organization Profiles on Kabissa as you need (see below)
Join and participate in Kabissa Groups, or create your own (see below)
View transcripts from the Kabissa Chat Room on IRC (see below)

Kabissa Organization Profiles

Adding an organization to Kabissa is free, and takes only about 10 minutes if you have all the information ready. Organization Profile features:

Logo or picture, full contact details, mission statement and description
Unique web address based on the acronym/shortname you provide (e.g. http://newtactics.kabissa.org)
Reachable via the Kabissa map and database search

Once your Organization Profile on Kabissa has been approved, you can:

Update your profile information whenever you want
Add more people to be listed on your profile who can be empowered to make updates
Add your own Kabissa Groups to your profile for sharing your content, blogging or team collaboration (see below)

Kabissa Groups

Kabissa Groups are managed by designated stewards and connect people and organizations for Africa on a range of topics. Each Kabissa Group includes blogs, news, wiki pages and polls.

Kabissa members can set up their own groups to suit their own needs (private team collaboration space, community blog, announcements, etc) via the admin menu on their organization profile pages.

Public posts to all groups on Kabissa can be browsed via a common taxonomy of tags (also called terms or keywords) specified by post authors, including:

Advocacy and Policy, Arts, Culture, Conflict Resolution, Humanitarian Services, Economic Development, Poverty Reduction, Education, Environment, Gender, Governance, Health,Human Rights, Democracy, Media, Journalism, Microfinance, Technology, Training, and Capacity Building

Below are the public groups stewarded by Kabissa to help African civil society put technology to work for the benefit of their communities. You are invited to join!

Kabissa News

Browse and join Groups stewarded by Kabissa members via the Kabissa Groups Directory.

Kabissa Chat Room on IRC

Kabissa Chat Room is a permanently available public space which you and anyone else can join and leave anytime. There you can type text messages to keep in direct contact with everyone else in the room, ask and answer questions, talk about or work on pressing issues, and simply provide each other company and support.

Messages you write in the chat rooms are saved in public archives that can be accessed later by registered Kabissa members, and might also form the basis of blog posts or other public information exchange that benefits the Kabissa community as a whole.

You can access Kabissa chat rooms on an ad hoc basis via a link at the bottom of every page on the Kabissa website or stay logged in via your own computer on a more regular basis by setting up an IRC Chat program. For more details, see the Step By Step Guide to Kabissa Chat Rooms.

Domain Registration

Kabissa is a preferred reseller at enom.com and registers domain names on behalf of our members.

Benefits of having your own domain name

Having an Internet address for your organization YOU CONTROL is important to ensure you are reachable on a reliable and continuous basis via web or email. You can also take it with you if you decide to change hosting providers. A dedicated domain name based on your organization's name (e.g. mediarightsagenda.net for Media Rights Agenda) is memorable, looks professional and improves your credibility as an organization.

See Chapter 4: Establishing your Web Presence - Phase II: Developing your Website of Kabissa's Time To Get Online manual to learn more.

Benefits of registering your domain name at Kabissa

AFFORDABLE:
Kabissa domains cost only $15 annually and can be paid for via paypal, credit card, US check or wire transfer
SAFE:
Kabissa promises to not allow your domain name to expire for up to one year after your last payment, and will always cooperate to the fullest extent possible to help you move your domain to another registrar should you so desire
YOU ARE IN CONTROL:
You get a control panel which you can use to control your domain settings, or Kabissa can help you to point your domain to a traditional website provider, online web service or whatever hosting provider you need

Where do I host my domain? How do I set up my website?

If you are new to domain hosting, we recommend you start out by pointing your domain to your Kabissa organization profile for website visitors and to Google Apps for email. We can help you with setting this up.

Please review the Useful Tools and Resources for Web Hosting guide which provides a wealth of information about traditional website hosting services (where you can upload a website you created offline) as well as new online services that let you set up a web presence through the web.

You can also join the Web Hosting group where you can ask questions about web hosting or offer help if you are an expert.

Eligibility for domain registration through Kabissa

Kabissa offers domain name registration to organizations working in Africa that are listed in the Kabissa organization database.

Check out the current list of African Civil Society Organizations entrusting Domain Registration to Kabissa.

Where do I sign up?

We are currently not registering new domains while we set up our new systems. (as of September 2010)

Domain Control Panel

The Control Panel to manage domains registered by Kabissa is at http://access.enom.com - this is where you can configure where your domain points for both email and websites along with other domain settings.

Please contact Kabissa if you do not know the password and need assistance.

Transfer your Kabissa domain to another registrar

If you wish to transfer your domain registration from Kabissa to another registrar, we will gladly cooperate.

Please contact Kabissa and we will send you the authorization code you will need to provide to your new registrar.

Parked domains

Over the years Kabissa has registered domains for members who then became unreachable to us. Rather than let the domains expire we have "parked" them at http://kabissa.org/parked to provide an opportunity for their owners to contact us.

We also would be glad to sell parked domains to help recover our costs - please contact us if you are interested in a parked domain.

Work with us!

As a volunteer-led network, we depend on the participation of stakeholders in the network to help us achieve our goals. Below are some suggestions on how everyone can join us in partnership to help people and organizations in African civil society put Information and Communication Technology to work for the benefit of their communities.

Participate in the Kabissa network

Add your organizations to Kabissa and keep your organization profiles up to date
Share opportunities and news from your organization to the Kabissa Community Blog
Report to the Kabissa Community Blog on what is going on in your community
Read the blogs and add your comments
Help build resource lists in Kabissa group wiki pages
Hang out in the Kabissa Chat Room

Spread the word about Kabissa

Add the Kabissa badge to your website (instructions at http://www.kabissa.org/promote)
Show Kabissa to your friends and colleagues working in Africa
Speak about how you use Kabissa at events and let us know when you do
Follow @kabissa on twitter and retweet our content to your followers
Share our content through social network sites, for example by "Liking" Kabissa content on Facebook and retweeting it on Twitter
Join our Facebook community page at http://facebook.com/kabissa

Take on a larger role at Kabissa

Want to play a larger role to guide Kabissa into the future? Join the Kabissa Board of Directors
Passionate about an issue or place? Co-steward a Kabissa Group
Online all the time? Help members feel at home in the Kabissa Chat Room
Love writing for the web? Write (or improve) step by step guides, tutorials and other Kabissa web pages
Data wizard? Help clean up the Kabissa organization database
Web Editor? Blogger? Assemble and edit the Kabissa Gong Gong monthly member newsletter
Test the Kabissa website and report problems to the Kabissa Website Issue Tracker
Programmer? Web Designer? Take on issues in the tracker to help us improve the Kabissa website

Support Kabissa financially

Kabissa has no employees and all work is done by volunteers or contractors. We depend on donations from individuals to keep our operation going.

If you benefit from Kabissa and value what we do, please click DONATE to make a one-time donation via credit card/PayPal.

To become a monthly supporter or for further donation options, visit http://kabissa.org/donate-now

Connect Kabissa with your own services and projects

Kabissa recognizes that there are many initiatives connecting African civil society and promoting ICT on the continent, and we see ourselves as part of a larger project. We believe that through partnership, we will all be more successful in achieving our shared vision of a better Africa.

To that end, we built the Kabissa online platform using freely available open source web applications, specifically Drupal and CiviCRM. These are modular and extendable, and can be connected to other online platforms to exchange and share data. Improvements done to our platform we would then contribute back to the open source community.

We would be glad to offer the platform to others who are interested in using it to carry out projects that contribute to positive change in Africa.

Kabissa the Organization

Our Charter

Kabissa operates under the following charter:

Mission
Kabissa’s mission is to help African civil society organizations put Internet and Communications Technology (ICT) to work for the benefit of the people they serve.

Vision
Kabissa’s vision is for a socially, economically, politically, and environmentally vibrant Africa, supported by a strong network of effective civil society organizations.

Principles
Kabissa seeks to adhere to the following principles in its operations and governance:

To work in close cooperation with partner organizations that can provide local expertise, support, and resources wherever possible
To make its operations transparent to the Kabissa community and the general public
To employ the services of companies that share Kabissa’s vision whenever possible. In all cases, the organizations will show professional integrity and provide the best value, so that Kabissa can pass on high-quality, affordable services to the Kabissa community
To avoid any source of income derived from activities which indisputably conflict with our vision
To be a highly-efficient organization, keeping overhead costs to a minimum
To develop, use, and promote software and content that is freely available under open source licensing agreements
To embrace a diversity of perspectives in our member community, our staff, and our board

Priorities for 2010-2011

The Kabissa board agreed at the Q3 2009 board meeting to work on the following priority areas as time and resources permit:

Cement organizational headquarters on Bainbridge Island, a community near Seattle in the Pacific Northwest, USA that has strong ties to Africa
Strengthen the Kabissa network in Africa and around the world by creating a network of ‘Kabissa Ambassadors’ that organize local social networks and cross-pollinate the best tactics for connecting people and organizations for Africa
Extend and strengthen the Kabissa network by producing an annual directory and other materials that can be shared in print and online
Extend and strengthen the Kabissa network through social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc
Make regular improvements to the Kabissa online platform
Encourage partners to carry out projects that improve Kabissa while furthering their own aims

Friends and Affiliate Organizations

Kabissa is affiliated with the following membership organizations:

Below are organizations and groups that have been particularly helpful to Kabissa in various ways. If you would like to talk about a potential partnership, please contact us.

Board of Directors

Current

Tobias Eigen, Germany/USA (Chair)
Peter Eigen, Germany (Secretary)
Daniel Ritchie, United States (Treasurer)
Neema Mgana, Tanzania (Member Representative)
John Githongo, Kenya

Former

Firoze Manji, Kenya
Kimberly Lowery, USA

History and Background

This is information is also available on Wikipedia.

Kabissa was founded in 1999 by Tobias Eigen with the idea that Internet and Communication Technology (ICT) could revolutionize the work of African civil society. Building on the years of ICT consulting experience Tobias Eigen had in Africa, Kabissa began by providing African civil society organizations with much needed accessible, affordable, and secure web and email hosting services.

During the next three years Kabissa's membership grew and the organization gained increasing recognition online and through word of mouth. In 2002 Kabissa won the ICT Stories Competition, an initiative of infoDev and the International Institute of Communication and Development which sought to capture the learning process that accompanies the introduction and implementation of ICTs for development. That year, Kabissa added a part-time Program Manager, Kim Lowery, to its staff. She would soon become Kabissa's co-executive director along with Tobias Eigen. Also in 2002, Kabissa applied for and received its first major grant from Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development for the pilot phase of Kabissa’s Time To Get Online training initiative.

Kim and Tobias went on to set up an office at Dupont Circle in Washington DC where for the next five years they along with dozens of interns and volunteers continued to develop its hosting services and training program. One intern, Liz Trautman, went on to become Kabissa's third employee as Member Relations Manager from 2004-2007. During this time Kabissa received support from major foundations including the Ford Foundation, Open Society Institute Information Program, Open Society Initiative for West Africa, the Hurford Foundation, National Endowment for Democracy, Yahoo Employee Foundation, and Lonely Planet Foundation (now Planet Wheeler Foundation). They trained hundreds of activists and development practitioners in end user and training of trainers workshops in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Morocco and distributed thousands of copies of the Time To Get Online manual. In partnership with Tanmia.ma in Morocco, the Time To Get Online manual and training program was localized into French and Arabic.

In 2007, Liz joined the Peace Corps in Benin and Kim went to work for the Academy for Educational Development. Kabissa followed Tobias to Bainbridge Island, WA in the Pacific Northwest of the United States and became a volunteer organization with no employees. In 2009, Kabissa announced a new focus on social media and launched the new online community platform to connect people and organizations for Africa - no matter where they are in the world. At the same time, Kabissa streamlined its internet services and shut down the server hosting websites for its member organizations.

Read on about Kabissa's founding: Thank you Way Back Machine! 2002: Story of Kabissa's Founding Wins ICT Stories Competition

Kabissa Hall of Fame

Over the years, Kabissa has had the benefit of contributions from the following staff, interns, and volunteers, many of whom are still involved in one way or another. Thank you for your contribution!

Vicki Aken, Rohan Amin, Jude Andreason, Glen Aronson, Cynthia Bartel, Bente Brandt, Ryan Cargo, Kate Couturier, Austin Duncan, Sokari Ekine, Elizabeth Fisher, Lauren Forstbauer, Sami Ghazi, Brad Knowles, Adrienne Laurie, Kim Lowery, Vince Mamo, Natalie McIntyre, Bethany Neumann, Eyabane Patasse, Chris Perry, Shawn Pompian, Vicrum Puri, Mark Root-Riley, Lauren Rosapep, Nadine Sanginga, Greg Schnippel, Alex Schual-Berke, Ghislain Siewe, Elizabeth Trautman, Leshoya Starkey, Soumya Vishnu, Nathan Yoder, Alexi Zekas

We also would like to pay tribute to our advisors who have provided essential guidance and support to Kabissa:

Stephanie de Chassy, Sokari Ekine, Toni Eliasz, Nancy Hafkin, Diego Hidalgo, Satish Jha, Sanjeev Khagram, William (Bill) Lester, Jeff Kwaterski, Sylvie Niombo, Craig Stewart, Elizabeth Trautman

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