I'm pleased to see that Ushahidi and nearly all of the projects I supported made it to the finalists stage! There were few African projects in the running but there were some really good ones and I think in fact that most of the winning projects show terrific potential to be very beneficial for Africa. Congratulations everyone!

[below is roughly what I hope to talk about this afternoon for the benefit of you netizens lurking out there and observing the web2fordev conference vicariously from the comfort of your computer monitors!]

Hello - I am Tobias Eigen from Kabissa, and I am here today to talk to you about Web 2.0 in African civil society.

Kabissa has found itself in the center of attention in the much hyped Web 2.0 movement and the opportunities it presents for African civil society. To name some highlights:

Thanks to the very wonderful support and many votes Kabissa received for our Web 2.0 Ambassadors project, Kim Lowery and Tobias Eigen had the pleasure of participating in the fascinating Netsquared conference, where we met with a wonderful group of over 350 likeminded technology innovators and "defended" our proposal with leaders in the fields of technological innovation, social impact and project sustainability. We will blogging about the event soon, but in the meantime click here to listen to Kim giving the five minute pitch!

There has been plenty of buzz in the blogosphere around Netsquared and its mission of remixing the web for social change. We were actively engaged in the voting process and are honored that our Kabissa 2.0: Strengthening the Social Web in Africa is a Netsquared Featured Project. Thank you for voting for us! Being a Netsquared Featured Project certainly comes with some very exciting perks, both anticipated and unanticipated, which I'd like to share. We are very much looking forward to seeing what else emerges for Kabissa and our project, which we are very proud of already and do hope will gain traction. If it does, then it will be a tremendous boost for African civil society seeking to harness the power of the Internet for social change.

Kabissa is very pleased to have attained the finalist stage in the prestigious Netsquared Innovation Award competition. Netsquared is working to spur the adoption of new "social web" tools among organizations like Kabissa that are working for social change. More than 150 projects competed. Some extraordinarily interesting projects working to amplify voices in the global south also made it, and Kabissa's co-executive director team Kim Lowery and Tobias Eigen are very much looking forward to meeting the people behind those projects at the Netsquared conference on May 28-30, 2007. If you have not yet read our proposal, do so now! We are eager for your feedback: Kabissa 2.0: Strengthening the Social Web in Africa

Kabissa is pleased to be in the very exciting competition to receive a Netsquared Innovation Fund award. Netsquared is an initiative to promote "remixing the web for social change" - which fits in precisely with our vision for the "Kabissa 2.0" we have been hinting at.

Please click here to view our Kabissa 2.0 proposal and vote for us!