SOJRA welcomes the winning of Somali Cameraman to the International Rory Peck Award 19 November, 2008 Somali news cameraman Abdullahi Farah Duguf has won the 2008 Rory Peck Award for News. The award honors freelance coverage of on-the-day news, where the focus is on the immediacy of the story. The winning footage Two Weeks in Mogadishu was shot in September 2007 and describes the human misery in the war-torn capital.

Jon Gosier's excellent African Tech blog, AppAfrica (African IT News & Culture) has two "top ten" posts, "Who's Blogging About Africa Tech"and the other "Top Ten Social Entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter". Jon gives the name, location and why we should follow. I am already following /sbramley who tweets from the field on water for people from Uganda and then there is /maratriangle who is a conservationist working in Massai Maria, Kenya. Why I particularly like these two Twitters is they are "action" based posting from the field. Mara Triange which is written by Joseph Kimojino recently twittered about a fund raising campaign for a toilet in a Massai vilage. With over 2,000 followers raising $200 should not have been a problem. It's also great to see so many people following the work of people on the ground. Also worth following is Jon himself, @jongos and the blog @appfrica.

Who's blogging African technology? The usual suspects are listed but here are 3 that are new to me:

This multi-author site features interesting reviews of pan-African startups.

Sample Content - Log your trips & keep track of distances traveled via SMS

Project Diaspora

I love the writing style of this one which offers a tongue-in-cheek look at various current events while still being accurate and insightful. I love their use of colloquial language and slang right along heavy tech babble.

Sample Content - Google’s O3B Networks versus EASSy. Fight!

Tech Masai

When TM has an opinion he doesn’t hold back! It’s that kind of candidness that make his reviews of African startups entertaining.

Sample Content - Profile: Bundublog

iRevolution comments on a new iniative to investigate media freedom across the world. Global Internet Freedom Index, (IGIF) will start with a 15 country pilot study covering the following:

The index is comprised of three general themes, each of which includes a number of (weighted) sub-indicators. The key components of the themes below is access to technology and the free flow of information/content.

1. Obstacles to access
2. Limits on content and communication
3. Violation of individual online rights

One of the sub-indicators, for example, focuses on activism in order to capture local resistance and activism in addition to government restrictions.

Finaly some new ideas on remittances "The Diaspora Gives Back" Mandeep Hotha suggests going further than the personal onto the community and further than the financial to skils, knowledge and talent and even democracy?

Much has been written about the environmenta pollution of electronic waste particularly as much of the waste has been dumped in Africa in the form of second hard computers and mobiles. This video highlights the worst practicies and worst effects of recyling and e-waste. How do you choose between poverty and poison?

Links:

Startups Nigeria announces Bar Camp Ghana on the 22nd December 2008 and Bar Camp Nigeria will be held in January 2009.  Full details will follow but meanwhile here is some preliminary information.

What's in a name? Web 2.0 and the internet in general has a habbit of renaming - in this case web statistics measuring news and blogs is called "political streaming". As someone who enjoys reading data and information graphically rather than textualy, "Political Streams" is a great find. The process of organising information on "news" and "blogs" is called "mining".

There is a tendency to view technology as gender neutral and very little discussion really takes place on the social, gender, cultural and organisational implications of technologies include the mobile phone. Here Kutoma Wakunuma discusses whether women how women are using mobile technology including what are the barriers and social implications...

A monthly newsletter for members of the Kabissa African civil society network

Contents

1. Dear Mimi: Internet Advice Column - Ushahidi comes to DRC
2. Under the Baobab Tree: News and Blog Posts from Kabissa Members
3. Kabissa Matters
4. Technology News and Resources
5. Opportunities Pot
6. Member Spotlight: Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (PIN)