Brief background to Kabissa, thoughts and suggestions for readers

Submitted by sokari on 17 April, 2008 - 14:43.
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I have been involved with Kabissa in various capacities for the past 7 years - as a member, as an adviser and now as the community coordinator, so I would say I am more than qualified to blow the "Kabissa Trumpet". Kabissa started about 9 years ago as an idea and vision of its founder Tobias Eigen to provide an online directory and hosting site for African Civil Society organisations.  In no time the membership grew from less than 100 in the first year to nearly 1200 this year with new applications arriving every day.    In the three and half months of 2008 alone, we have had 75 new members. After five years of continued growth and with a wave of new internet technologies becoming available, Kabissa felt it was time to improve its functionality and introduce a new set of features. But more than this Kabissa wanted to promote the use of the new technologies forthe benefit of African CSOs and help to bridge the digital divide between the north and south. 

The new Kabissa online community website (which we affectionately call K2) was launched in February this year. To be sure, the new technology Kabissa is offering us the usual Web 2.0 set of applications, using and encouraging our members to use Open Source software.  Most important though, Kabissa is providing a platform for exchanging ideas, for soliciting and obtaining information (technical or non-technical), eLearning and fostering a sense of community amongst our members and readers.    

We recognise the many difficulties our members have in getting online such as the high cost of internet service providers and at least in some areas, the unreliable electricity supply which not only prevents people getting online but the constant power surges and disconnections damage equipment.  As much as possible we have been publishing, and will continue to do so, articles about alternative energy ideas and equipment; new ideas and ways of using mobile phones as well as updates on mobile phone hardware and software.  

We also encourage our members and readers to send us feedback on the site (which is still very much in the beta stage but we are working hard to improve it) and also ideas you might have for content.  It would be really useful if users of the site could also send us their own experiences of using the internet - the cost of services,  what type of services they use (broadband or dialup) what speeds, how power failures impact on their work generally and internet access in particular, how they have used the mobile phone to overcome general communication problems and lack of infrastructure.  Please use the contact form or send us an email at community at kabissa.org and we will publish your emails in a series of blog post. Alternatively if you are a member then feel free to publish your own blog posts on the topic.  

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