Participate in the TechSoup Digital Storytelling Challenge

Submitted by Claire Sale on 20 February, 2012 - 14:27

We’d like to invite you or your organization to participate in our 2012 TechSoup Digital Storytelling Challenge. We’re in the midst of an exciting challenge with learning opportunities and a chance to submit your one-minute video or five-photo slideshow to win excellent award donations from our partners.

This challenge is open to all social benefit organizations regardless of 501(c)(3) status or location.

How to get involved:

Tallying the results of 2012 Kabissa core costs fundraising

Submitted by Tobias Eigen on 14 February, 2012 - 04:48

This is a thank you post - a shout out to all the lovely people who responded to our appeals to help cover Kabissa's 2012 core operating costs on behalf of the Kabissa board of directors, volunteer team and members.

We are humbled by the faith you put in us and encouraged to redouble our efforts to continue our work to maintain and grow a community platform for African civil society on a low cost and sustainable basis.  

Thanks to 50+ generous donors (see hall of fame below) we have met our goal! As of today, we have received just over $15,000. Pledges of over $6,000 are expected to come in during the course of 2012 via Aid for Africa and the World Bank Community Connections Campaign. 

2012 Core Costs Contributors Hall of Fame

Allen Gunn, Amanda Valeur, Angus Parker, Anne Bayley, Arthur Nielsen Demain, Augustine Komba Mends, Barbara Shaw, Bente Brandt, Bill Minter, Camilla Burg, Chris Bayley, Cindy Nofziger, Cora Weissbourd, Daniel Ritchie, Dave Witzel, Diana Cocoru, Dietrich Splettstoesser, Elinor Fanning, Erikka Martin, Georg Neumann, George Scharffenberger, Georgene Scott, Ghislain Siewe, Harker and Julie Hearne, Jane Sparrow, Jeff Kwaterski, Jeff Thindwa, Jill Hearne, Jim Gleckler, Johanna Eigen, Jon Bayley, Kofi Boakye, Larry Casazza, Leif Utne, Mari Kuraishi, Mark Root-Wiley, Mary Dunnam, Meryl Cohen, Nathan Freitas, Neema Mgana, Nick Mosca, Olujimi Akindele, Patricia Bayley, Paul Ardeleanu, Peggy Duvette, Perpetus Jacques Houngbo, Peter Eigen, Ryan Bogarty-Farolet, Sami Ghazi, Susan Dunn, Tina Manco, Tina Thuermer, Tobias Eigen, Wayan Vota

(This is not an exhaustive list. Please contact us with corrections or to request removal if you prefer not to be recognized) 

Please join and share! Invitation to join the Africa Roundtable on Bainbridge Island

Submitted by Tobias Eigen on 25 January, 2012 - 22:01

I just sent the email below to Kabissa members and supporters in Washington State about the Africa Roundtable, an initiative I am starting up here on Bainbridge Island where I live. This is something I've been interested in doing for a long time, and if it works here on Bainbridge we should join forces with others to replicating it in other parts of the world. Please help spread the word and let me know if you have ideas or are interested in helping out. Thanks! 

 

Dear Kabissa friends in Washington,

I am writing to let you know about a new initiative I am starting here on Bainbridge Island where I live called the Africa Roundtable.

I would appreciate it if you could take a moment to learn about the initiative, join in if you are interested and help spread the word in your network by forwarding this email, sharing the Africa Roundtable facebook page, mentioning @africaroundtabl on twitter or just simply pointing people to http://www.africaroundtable.org.

Where does this idea come from? In the months since returning to Bainbridge from Berlin, and while networking and looking for organizations to work with, I have come across a number of people on the island who have an interesting Africa connection but who have never heard of each other. As the founder of Kabissa, an African civil society networking platform operated by volunteers, I am committed to grassroots empowerment through technology capacity building and networking. I'd love to do this on Bainbridge with people and organizations working in Africa, with regular face to face meetings to explore opportunities for cooperation, peer learning and mutual support.

The idea behind organizing both lunchtime and evening meetings is to accommodate schedules (not everyone is actually on Bainbridge during the day) and types of engagement (not everyone works on Africa on a day-to-day basis but many would like to learn what is being done for Africa from Bainbridge and support it). Another idea is to have these events be catered - Simply Bainbridge have made us a terrific offer which I think will contribute greatly to making our Roundtable gatherings enjoyable and successful for all involved.

Here’s the link again to join in: http://www.africaroundtable.org.

With thanks,

Tobias Eigen,
Kabissa Founder

P.S. Here’s a sample short text you can take verbatim (or tweak) to share the URL with your friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter:

Do you work on Africa from (or near) Bainbridge Island? Join the new Africa Roundtable! http://africaroundtable.org

The internet is going dark on January 18, 2012

Submitted by Tobias Eigen on 18 January, 2012 - 07:01

Kabissa is joining an initiative to protest the Protect IP Act / SOPA law on January 18th for which our website at kabissa.org will be taken offline completely for 24 hours. We encourage you to inform yourself about the issue and to participate in the protest  - we received many announcements about the day and opportunities to get involved in the United States and around the world but the most useful was that from Access, reprinted below. 

 

Take action today to learn about Facebook timeline and hide embarassing and potentially endangering old status updates

Submitted by Tobias Eigen on 17 December, 2011 - 23:32

Facebook is again evolving and growing its offerings, this time to bring a new feature that makes it easy and fun to explore and engage with someone's activities on facebook through time. As I've been saying over the last few years as Facebook gained in prominence (and I'm not alone in this) I am very concerned about Kabissa members working in potentially risky environments using Facebook in a non-tactical way and risking not just embarassment but arrest or worse. 

Pedagogical Integration of ICT: Successes and Challenges from 100+ African Schools - 3rd edition

Submitted by Dramane Darave on 19 November, 2011 - 04:03

 

[ Download, 3.5 Mb]

The PanAfrican Research Agenda aimed to better understand how the pedagogical integration of ICT can improve the quality of teaching and learning in Africa.

In the first project phase, national research teams gathered data on the educational use of ICT in 13 countries: Ghana, Gambia, Senegal, Central African Republic, Uganda, Mozambique, Mali, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Congo, Cameroon, and South Africa, and Zambia. Data were collected according to a mixed-method approach, using quantitative data (e.g., questionnaires) and qualitative data (e.g., interviews, observations) on how ICT were integrated into education. In all, 120 schools, 800 school administrators, 8 940 teachers, and 242 873 students participated in the project.

Intégration pédagogique des TIC : Succès et défis de 100+ écoles africaines - 3e édition

Submitted by Dramane Darave on 19 November, 2011 - 04:02

 

[ Téléchargez, 3,5 Mo]

L'agenda panafricain de recherche vise à « mieux comprendre comment l'intégration pédagogique des TIC peut améliorer la qualité des enseignements et des apprentissages en Afrique ». Au cours de la première phase du projet, une équipe nationale de recherche a recueilli des données à propos des usages des TIC pour l'enseignement et l'apprentissage dans chacun des treize pays suivants : le Ghana, la Gambie, la Zambie, le Sénégal, la République centrafricaine, l'Ouganda, le Mozambique, le Mali, le Kenya, la Côte d'Ivoire, le Congo, le Cameroun et l'Afrique du Sud.

So what do you think of our new look?

Submitted by Tobias Eigen on 17 November, 2011 - 09:31

We have redesigned the site to reflect Kabissa’s role as a niche network connecting people and organizations working for positive change in Africa. We hope you like it!

We can’t wait for you to explore the site and give us your feedback. Here are some highlights:

  • The Kabissa Front Page draws in new members by highlighting our unique offerings for African civil society, showcasing members through a new “member stories” section and featuring news and blogs posted on Kabissa by members.
     
  • The Kabissa Community Blog is a space available for members to blog about their activities in Africa and to share opportunities, insights and tech tips relevant to the continent. Posts to the blog are featured on the Kabissa frontpage, monthly member newsletter and distributed via Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks.
     
  • Kabissa Groups are now reoriented around private, members-only discussion, information sharing and networking via email (like Yahoo! Groups or a listserv) to enable quicker interaction and mutual support between members - directly in our email. Each group has a private online space containing member list, full record of email discussions and wiki pages.
     
  • Log in to take a look at the new Member Dashboard pull-down menu which brings together in one place everything you might need to do to manage your group memberships, newsletter subscriptions, user profile page, organizations and more.

If you encounter a problem or bug with the new site, or have any feedback at all, please report it as soon as possible via our feedback form at http://kabissa.org/beta so we can fix it - thank you!

Silicon Valley Human Rights Standard (crossposted from rightscon.org)

Submitted by Tobias Eigen on 29 October, 2011 - 02:11

Silicon Valley Human Rights Conference

One of the objectives of the Silicon Valley Human Rights Conference is the creation of a Silicon Valley Standard (SVS). This is a principled statement incorporating the issues discussed at the 2011 Silicon Valley Human Rights Conference. The document includes 15 principles based on the 15 workshop topics covered at the conference.

The document is designed to complement other existing frameworks and uses the international human rights framework as its foundation. These principles served as a useful basis for discussion during the panels and represent a standard, which we hope the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector will use after the conference.

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