From Technology in Tunis...to a Wireless WSIS

Have You Tried Google Buzz?

2010-03-02T08:40:00.001-08:00

If not, get a-buzzing. The web is now replete with more articles on Buzz than you can shake a stick at. There are a couple of Buzz-related sites that might be of interest to you. Try these here:

Gonebuzz -- find people you would like to join on Google Buzz on this link
Google Profiles -- create your comprehensive link on Google profile here. Useful to add ALL your links
Buzzzy.com -- search for Buzz posts, though you can already search real-time on this blog (to the right-hand side of the page)

There's an insightful article from here, which I am going to copy below here. I think it captures the basics and essentials of what to find in Google Buzz. Enjoy!

================

The Buzz on Google: A Technological Beehive

Features

By Jack Chen '13

Monday, 01 March 2010 18:32

The Google Buzz logo.

Just a couple of weeks ago, Google released Buzz, a social networking tool integrated into its e-mail service, Gmail. Google Buzz, designed to complement existing web services, merges features from both Twitter and Facebook, allowing users to communicate with each other not only through text but also images and video. Like subscribing to Twitter feeds, Buzz users can choose contacts to "follow". Buzz also offers a commenting and "like" system similar to Facebook's. Google Account holders can access Buzz through their Gmail inboxes; at the moment, the iPhone, Symbian, Windows Mobile, the BlackBerry OS and phones running Android partially support Buzz as well.

Instead of competing against popular sites that already have tens and hundreds of millions of users, Google Buzz aims to integrate them all into a seamless experience. Buzz is already fully compatible with Twitter, Flickr, Picasa, YouTube, Google Chat and Google Reader, in addition to Gmail, of course. For example, one could set Google to import tweets and automatically send them out to Buzz followers. Although Buzz currently isn't compatible with Facebook, Google has ambitions to expand on that direction.

"We want to make sure that we do have the most open, well integrated, well behaving social network in the industry," Mr. Bradley Horowitz, Google's vice president of product management told eWeek. Other Buzz features that appeal to users include the generous unlimited-character and multiple full-size image attachments allowed, a non-existent setup process (all details are directly imported from Gmail), and the automatic process whereby Buzz pre-selects one's followers and followed based on regularity of emails/chats.

Buzz joins Google Wave and Orkut in Google's attempt to diversify from advertising, which makes up for over ninety five percent of Google's revenue. Orkut is relatively unknown in the United States but has proved surprisingly popular in India and Brazil, while Wave is slowly being rolled out on an invite-only basis, similar to how Gmail was released in 2004. "Wave is on the Gmail path, and it's probably going to grow as Gmail did," said Joe Entenman '11. "With Buzz, I think it's a little harder to say. It'll either be an instant success or a complete flop."

Within hours of Buzz's release, however, the entire web was flooded with complaints about privacy issues. Google engineers swiftly set out to solve the problems, staying overnight at Google headquarters in Mountain View, California. "I've been impressed with how quickly Google has responded to complaints," said Entenman. "It's good that they're listening to what users are saying and making changes in response."

Nonetheless, some of the original problems still persist. The main concern users had was with the default setting, in which a list of the full names of a user's most-contacted Gmail Contacts is publicly displayed on that user's Google profile. Another problem is specific to the mobile version of Google Buzz. When users post from their cell phones, their precise location – street number, street name, city, and state – is revealed online.
While these privacy issues are likely to be fixed in the coming weeks, Google Buzz is facing a backlash of bad publicity and legal violations. A Harvard Law School student has filed a class-action lawsuit and the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) has registered a formal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), both about Google's privacy management.

Luckily for Google, all of the publicity--regardless of whether it's positive or negative--about Buzz has prompted many to try the service out for themselves. Just two days after its release, nearly ten million posts and comments had been logged, with over two hundred posts per minute from cell phones. When the various concerns are finally resolved, Buzz has potential to become the new social-networking hub. "A lot of people already use Buzz because of Gmail," said Panat Taranat '13, who finds Buzz useful for communicating with friends and family. "The interface is great; it brings the simplicity of Twitter together with the [many] things you can do [on] Facebook."

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2010-03-02T06:54:00.001-08:00

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How Vodafone's Voodoo Crunched My Credit!

2010-02-10T08:52:00.000-08:00

Two days ago, I was more than a poster-child for disappointment as I was unable to send my paltry 0.30gp/0.40gp/0.50gp to myself and a friend--just because Vodafone Ghana had not told me that they were working on their transfer credit function.

My friend asked me for a transfer today and I lamented how Vodafone had gone and done voodoo with my credit, wanting me to transfer in denominations of 1ghC!

Well, mystery over: I just got off the toll-free line (in Ghana 101), which is actually that for Broadband services as the 011 was not working, and was duly informed that they will complete work on the 12th!

Here was me thinking that I had gone the way of the fool in believing that they would hold onto some of the gems of the erstwhile Ghana Telecom, such as Live SMS (113) and the famous credit transfer.

Well, looks like they have, but I did suggest next time they better inform us--not just on the radio, which quite a number listen only for a limited time!

By the way, GOOGLE BUZZ is all the rage. Need to spread the word on Google's latest Social networking site. Wonder when Yahoo and/or MSN will follow suit!

The Bonfire of TELCO Vanities

2009-12-11T04:49:00.000-08:00

By E.K.Bensah Jr.

I do not for a second doubt the intelligence of any of our musicians, but when their utterances defy common sense, it can only make you wonder if sense is so common, why doesn’t everybody then have it?

A term so platitudinous it is not funny—and often used by all and sundry— is the term “global village.” In other words, we are believed to be all connected in many more ways than we can imagine—and social networking tools like that of Facebook and Twitter exemplify this closeness to sometimes frightening proportions. This means that our understanding of issues have reached a point where most of us –thanks to online point-of-reference Wikipedia – accept a consensus on definitions.

Last time I looked, an ambassador is someone who is supposed to carry the aspirations—i.e. represent—his nation or the beliefs encapsulated in a cause, hence the role of UN Ambassadors, such as the newly appointed Stevie Wonder. Such ambassadors are not UN officials, but carry and advocate the UN’s view of alleviating the scourge of war and promoting peace.

So when a few weeks ago 16 artistes – actors and musicians alike – were made ambassadors for the Nigerian telco GLOBACOM, I thought it was evident that the whole package involved more than the money, and that it was more a case of these artistes representing GLOBACOM—and no other telco in the Ghanaian landscape. Even without recent reports alluding to some complaints about a so-called “exclusivity clause”, that they are ambassadors for a company speaks volumes about how they are expected to conduct themselves with these telecommunication companies.

If all this seems like a black-and-white affair, let us pause and reflect for a nano-second: is it not great to have telcos come into the country to provide services and jobs for Ghanaians? Is it right, however, that they come and lure artistes with money to the extent that their space for performance is seriously inhibited by an exclusivity clause contract?

Some might say “who cause ‘am? I can only scream “regulation!”

The Three MuskITeers?

So Accra Mall now has no less than three Internet cafes: the Apple shop, powered by Vodafone; BusyInternet; and now very recently, Vodafone Ghana. I do not think that anyone will now be quibbling about accessing their emails for that all-important mail, as for the price of GHC2.50/hr, one can access any of the three cafes. I guess the jury might be out for a while on the speed of the internet connections of these three places, but on the significance of the cafés, the verdict is out—and it is in favour of choice.

Much like the presence of the five telcos in the country, consumers are being given choices to make on what comparative advantages any of the companies have that would be less expensive for the pocket, but I cannot help but wonder a bt about the presence of the three cafes.

Granted, the novelty of the Apple shop café is that it is, frankly, classist: only those sufficiently audacious to try their luck on a Macintosh would want to try the Internet a la Mac. Looking at the role of Busyinternet is like looking at nothing at all—after all, Busy has been the industry leader for a good nine years. But then there’s Vodafone Ghana.

I cannot for the life of me understand why the erstwhile Ghana Telecom that pretty much has a monopoly on the provision of broadband provision through its broadband4u does not simply bring down the cost of broadband so that many more new Vodafone Ghana users might get access. Is it just me or is the provision of a service to the public by a provider that has monopoly of that service, but fails to bring down the cost of that service to existing customers not sound like an idea turned on its head?

In short, why is Vodafone concentrating on competing with an industry [read: internet café] leader like Busyinternet (especially when it already has a presence through the Apple Shop which it powers) when its existing BROADBAND customers have been paying the same rate since they appeared on the scene in August 2008? Why not focus on bringing down the cost of broadband provision for those subscribers, while simultaneously inviting new subscribers to BROADBAND4U through a promotion?

Unless Vodafone Ghana is planning on doing some strange things to the BROADBAND4U service and telling its customers, I shall be asking more of these hard questions!

How the Ghanaian Media Missed the Masters of the Internet at IGF IV

2009-12-02T03:40:00.000-08:00

So the Internet Governance Forum has come and gone like it never happened—and none of the media in Ghana covered it. I cannot quite understand how the Ghanaian media can pick up feeds from the BBC on all and sundry, but somehow miss issues like these? If it is about building capacity, then perhaps a shake-up of the Editors who manage news content ought to be done so that particular kind of news can be covered.

I do not know about you, but last time I looked, technology had assumed an important factor in the development of most nations. That we have the beleagured Vodafone; Tigo; MTN; and Zain in the country and that they are reputed to making tongues of observers of that sector wag could be construed as a sign that the market is saturated, given that Globacom is yet to take-off. That in itself should probably give more of the media food for thought on the future of technology beyond value added services to our mobile phones. These days, for example, mobile internet has become de rigeur, and I am wont to believe that it is only a non-discerning media that will want to leave the debate on technology at the door of mobile phones!

Truth be told, some papers have started to get their act together on reporting technology and ICT. Though I can only think of two out of many of the private press, it is at least a start. Then again, even one of the state-owned sister paper’s that does a great job on reporting technology every week failed to touch on the Internet governance forum, preferring to do an interview of the boss of the International Telecommunications Union(ITU) Dr Hamidou Toure.

Why Internet Governance matters

Perhaps one of the cardinal benefits of the internet is its ability to serve as a source of information to people all over the world. That it is generally free once one overcomes the hurdle of internet café fees and whatnot makes the appeal all the more greater. While I understand it is very easy to appreciate the value of the Internet and its utility for all sorts of uses, I also understand that it is very easy for all of us to take it for granted.

This is where Internet governance comes in, because it enables policy to be formulated so that people worldwide can continue to enjoy its benefit. Even more critical is the Internet governance forum, which I touched on last week. Its value is found in the fact that it is a multi-stakeholder forum monitoring the work of the Internet, and therefore making it easier for policy to be produced around it.

The naysayers of the internet governance process might speculate that after the World Summit on Information Society in Tunis, the UN just needed another excuse to spend inordinate amounts of money on a process that does not get anywhere. Before we accept this idea lock, stock and barrel, let us read what is officially written about it.

Wikipedia says that it was a working group established after a United Nations-initiated World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) that proposed the following definition of Internet governance as part of its June 2005 report:

Internet governance is the development and application by Governments, the private sector and civil society, in their respective roles, of shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures, and programmes that shape the evolution and use of the Internet.

Wikipedia maintains that “Law professor Yochai Benkler developed a conceptualization of Internet governance by the idea of three "layers" of governance: the "physical infrastructure" layer through which information travels; the "code" or "logical" layer that controls the infrastructure; and the "content" layer, which contains the information that signals through the network.”

In other words, looking at how the Internet works through how governments themselves do their work is probably one of the ways in which we can better-appreciate the work of the Internet Governance Forum.

In the final analysis, if the impression I am giving is that the Ghanaian media does not cover these issues because they are apathetic to them, then I would be way off mark. The truth of the matter is that I should have known that having failed to cover the past three Internet Governance Forums (2006-2008), they were hardly going to change tack and suddenly begin covering it. At least, one has to commend the consistency!

ENDs

Introducing the Masters of the Internet at the Fourth Internet Governance Forum

2009-11-17T05:46:00.000-08:00

By E.K.Bensah Jr.

Despite the apparent growing ubiquity of broadband internet--as expressed, for example, through USB mobile modems that promise us heaven and blink-of-the-eye speeds--it is true that access to the internet is a great deal better than it was even five years ago.

The media generally likes to talk a lot about costs going down, inexorably providing the general Ghanaian population with relatively less expensive access to the Internet. Truth be told, the availability of mobile phones is probably that which has democratised access to the 'Net, through the easy access of wap-enabled services--as exemplified by those of Zain, which, with a simple sim card, enables you connect to mobile internet within 24 hours.

Back to the ICT Future?

You may re-call that last week, I touched on ITU and how it creates standards. This week, I want to remind us to reflect a bit on the progress of the Internet since 2005, when the World Summit of Information Society ended in Tunisia with what has come to be known as the “Tunis Agenda for the Information Society”. Adopted on November 18, 2005 in Tunis, Tunisia, it called for the creation of an Internet Governance Forum(IGF) and what wikipedia calls “a novel, lightweight, multi-stakeholder governance structure for the Internet.”

Few Ghanaians might know that as I write this, the Fourth Edition of what has become known to the ICT cognoscenti as IGF will end on 18 November, where a number of important developments in the ICT and information society sector will develop. The Internet Governance Forum is underway in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, which to some might seem a curious place, given its record on human rights. Already, repports doing the rounds on the internet are trying to suggest that the UN has been involved in some kind of nefarious conspiracy of silencing proponents of human rights--just because some UN guards removed posters on human rights that had not been approved earlier.

Back in Tunis, in 2005, there was even a stabbing of a human rights activist, lending credence to the assumption that just because it was a UN-sponsored conference, the global body could come and wag its finger at Tunisia for bad human rights. Most of us who had the priviledge to be there at that time were consumed by attentiveness to the multiplicity of terminologies and developments coming at us with juggernaut speed that in all honesty, agitations like that looked like a footnote to the wider debate on where the information society was going.

IGF IV Explained

All that said, reports seem to indicate that the meeting is rather focused, with discussions focusing primarily on access to the “Internet; diversity; openness; security; and critical internet resources”.

The statistics are also not to be sneezed at. For example, Subramanian Ramadorai, the Vice-Chairman of Tata Consultancy Services in India has not just talked about how new technologies “can mean the difference between life and death for the 701 per cent of the global population still unconnected to the Internet”, but crucially, how “while 79.4 per cent of Australians and 70 per cent of Americans have internet access, only 15 per cent of Asians and only 4 percent of Africans have access.” This kind of statistic reinforces the perception of a digital divide that is a veritable reality for millions of the non-connected. One-Laptop-Per-Child (OLPC), though a commendable endeavour that also came out of WSIS 2005, can only go so far in addressing the digital divide.

What it seems we can say about the outcome of this IGF is that it will be one that makes concrete suggestions on the above-mentioned points, including recognizing that connectivity has a direct correlation with a positive social and economic changes; therefore ensuring that rural communities are privy and party to these positive changes are critical.

Ramadorai maintains that bringing ICT into rural clinics, schools and mobile devices, impacts basic education, health care, and agriculture in ways that one can never have imagined. To that extent, it makes sense that while we appreciate that consumers in the developed market enjoy broadband and are even moving to newer technologies, there is quite some catch-up that many parts of the developing world will need to do to ensure that the information society is not just part of UN nomenclature--but contributes to a fair and inclusive society.

ekbensah AT gmail.com / +233-268.891.841

Why the International Telecommunications Union(ITU) Matters

2009-11-11T03:14:00.000-08:00

By E.K.Bensah Jr.

Despite the fact that Ghana recently took over the Council of the International Telecommunications Union from Bulgaria at their general meeting in Geneva, I do not for a second think that Ghanaians generally know what the implications of this position mean. I think it makes sense that if you are to understand the significance of the position, then it is only fair you obtain an insight into what the ITU is and does. In my estimation, few Ghanaians care enough to know these two. Against this background, I am going to spend the next couple of weeks touching on aspects of the ITU, what it does and why it matters--not just for Ghana, the sub-region or the continent, but for the rest of the world.

ITU Council for Dummies

Let me begin, though, with the Council. It comprises 46 member states and is the ITU's governing body. The assuming of Ghana on the Council does not mean that Ghana gets to head the ITU; it simply means that like the UN's Security Council, which rotates between countries every now and then, Ghana will chair discussions of the 46-member group, which includes the implementation of the Union's strategic plan, with the objective of responding to the current demands of a fast-changing telecommunications and ICT environment.

Right now, Ghana's MP and Minister for Communications Haruna Iddrisu will be the key person on the ITU Council. Speaking early October at the start of the Council, he talked about how Ghana is committed “to the ideals and values of ITU”. Normal speak you might think. Indeed, but here was the killer: “we must set the tone and agenda on how to strengthen regulatory practices, address issues related to convergence and ensure the smooth functioning of the Internet.”

It is conceivable that buried inside those words was not just a Minister of Communications hot on the heels of a report looking at the Sales and Purchase agreement (SPA) of the deal between Ghana Telecom and Vodafone, but one that has for quite a while sought to highlight the necessity of the rule of law around the telecommunications and ICT sector. In this respect, when he spoke this way, he was not just recognizing that there remain regulatory practices--as exemplified by Ghana's National Communications Authority(NCA) - but that governments have to keep an eagle-eye on strengthening regulation to the extent that new and emerging technologies can be kept under wraps as well.

Another key thing Iddrisu said was in relation to the hottest topic at the moment--climate change. Here, his words are in consonance with the ITU, which strongly believes that ICTs can be seriously harnessed to combat climate change.

Why we must care about the ITU

After all has been said and done, the ITU is more than the governing council; it currently has a secretary-general--Malian Hamadoun Toure--and quite a bit of work to be done. However, most of its work can be broken down as Wikipedia explains it: “Its main tasks include standardization, allocation of the radio spectrum, and organizing interconnection arrangements between different countries to allow international phone calls -- in which regard it performs for telecommunications a similar function to what the UPU performs for postal services”.

Breaking it down for the rest of us, ITU is in fact a lot about standards, standards, and more standards. Wikipedia explains it this way: “Due to its longevity as an international organization and its status as a specialized agency of the United Nations, standards promulgated by the ITU carry a higher degree of formal international recognition than those of most other organizations that publish technical specifications of a similar form.”

In short, ITU is not just the UN's telecom agency, but the agency that sets standards that are meaningful.

Boon for mobile phone users--phone chargers!

Small wonder, then, that the ITU has just approved a standard for phone chargers. The UN agency has just given its endorsement to an energy-efficient one-charger-fits-all new mobile phone solution. Now, every mobile user will enjoy the new Universal Charging Solution(UCS), which enables the same charger be used for all future-compliant handsets--irrespective of make and model.

Will The Elusive Globacom Offer us Better Value for Money?

2009-11-04T00:53:00.000-08:00

Let us be clear: if you promise me that you will be arriving in a country in September, yet two months later, you have not made your presence known, might you not be considered to represent the word “elusive”? If so, then you might want to join me in tagging Ghana's sixth operator Globacom as a fitting candidate. Consider this. As far back as March this year, its website on gloworld.com read: “Glo Mobile Ghana is set to change the face of communication in Ghana as it engages ZTE, a highly-rated international telecoms vendor, to deploy additional access network infrastructure including hundreds of indoor and outdoor Basic Trans-receiver Stations (BTS) for its imminent roll-out.” Given the lengthy delay of Globacom's entry into the country, could cynics be blamed for becoming weary at a combination of tardy Nigerian services with Chinese technology feared as sub-standard to be a harbinger of bad tidings for the festive season?

Tigo far from Trailing the Telco Competition

On a more serious side, given the serious competition going on off late, might Globacom not have arrived on the bad side of telco competition? If you are scratching your head in wonderment, you must have missed something: Zain has gone in overdrive to reward--and appease--all those new customers that have been complaining that they do not enjoy the bonus all those older customers get at the end of every two months. You can now send a message to a number, which will enable you enjoy all you spent in the day the following day.

Tigo might have stolen Zain's thunder, if truth be told, for it's value-added-service of paying 3.99GHC for a month to one Tigo number is doing wonders for those who have subscribed. Although you can add only one number at a time, imagine how much money you would have spent had you been calling a regular number without this promotion? In my book, Tigo is winning in so far as many others join the Tigo revolution.

Vodafone Vodoo!

For a person who has more erstwhile ONETOUCH chips than sense, you could say I have become a sage!

I have decided to abandon my vodafone chips. I just don't feel I am getting value for money. Last month, I got my bonus credit from
Zain, looked at my Vodafone chips and shrugged.

"Just not worth it" I thought.

These days, using a mobile phone is not just about convenience, it is also about accommodating the necessary headache of buying units. Given the relatively execrable quality of lines these days at peak times (read: saturation!), you are likely to have dropped calls, which inevitably lead one to consider using secondary networks--which all cost money to maintain. Promotions do not a telco make, but when the only one they are also offering is as elusive as the arrival of Globacom into the country, then I begin to wonder whether it is not time to offer some TLC--tender loving care-- to my disposable income!

Tech Appeal 191

Despite the fact that the Spintex Road is undergoing fresh tarring, given the execrable number of potholes there, tro-tros, more than any other kind of commercial driver, is behaving badly by overtaking and stopping on the shoulder of the roads when they could simply follow the queue. This morning, one of those Ashanti-bound American cars illegally overtook us as we were slowing down and, without warning, moved in front of us. This kind of intimidation does not help tempers in the morning. Does NRSC have a number to call to check these types?
I humbly submit that ALL news stations--from GTV through to METRO TV to TV3--set up numbers--either Multimedia messaging service (MMS) numbers or simple emails--where the Ghanaian public can either send pictures of bad driving of social ills, such as parked cars without triangles, etc. This way, every Ghanaian would feel involved in helping make Ghana a better place. More importantly, the spate of camera phones would be put to better use now that many people are beginning to feel the pinch of buying new phones in these hard, economic times.
Will the Ghana police consider joining FACEBOOK, or having a twitter account? Imagine informing twitter “followers” and Facebook users that there is traffic up ahead on the Spintex Road? The service should think about the wonders that would bring to road management! Their website on ghanapolice.info is this side short of bad, with latest news giving information posted in March 2009!

ekbensah@gmail.com / 0268.891.841 / http://twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com

*this piece will originally appear in upcoming edition of WEEKEND WORLD, to hit newstands this weekend

Cogitations on Workplace Facebook Policies

2009-10-02T06:17:00.000-07:00

I must have died and gone to heaven! Given the egregious stories one hears about the banning of Facebook at the workplace off-late, I was very happy to know that the big boss himself was engaged in a discussion of the organisation's presence on Facebook, even if he considered it "experimental".

The genesis of the discussion yesterday lay with a colleague wondering what guidelines existed for the direction of the organisation on Facebook. Considering I manage the fan page, I was a bit stumped. It is a very necessary discussion to be had, and I intend to produce something by the end of the week for revision.

Even more interesting are these tips on enhancing Facebook fan pages, which I hope will enhance your insight as much as it has mine!

Why I'm bored with Vodafone Ghana

2009-10-01T08:39:00.000-07:00

For a person who has more erstwhile ONETOUCH chips than sense, you could say I have become a sage!

I have decided to abandon my vodafone chips (numbering 6!--don't ask how come?!). I just don't feel I am getting value for money. Yesterday, I got my bonus credit from
Zain, looked at my Vodafone chips and shrugged.

"Just not worth it" I thought.

Vodafone's promotion for the ridiculous $1m prize/Trassaco valley and shit just reflects the values of the new management that feel most Ghanaians want to be chauffeur-driven in a 4X4 jeep, and live in a mansion, where there will be no regular stipend for its upkeep.

Just plain foolish.

I'm so mad with Vodafone I'm not even linking them--go and google them yourself. I always said Ghana Telecom should not be sold.

It is only history and posterity that will judge the NPP administration for selling off Ghana's major communications service.

Long live Ghana Telecom!

Zain vs MTN? You Decide!

2009-07-09T05:27:00.000-07:00

It's been a while, I know. Have not yet mustered up the courage to write a piece on VODAFONE's "Red Day", and how deceptive it is. While you wait with baited breath, enjoy this one, which is an interesting post from a fellow Ghanablogging member--Mac Jordan--is worth reading here:

~~http://accraconsciousforever.blogspot.com/2009/07/why-i-prefer-zain-to-mtn.html~~

I'm with Mac-Jordan on the Zain--though I don't get the missed calls:-(

12.00pm update on 10 July, 2009: All of the above would have been okay if it were not for the fact that it was actually David Ajao who wrote the post. Mac-Jordan merely culled it. Here's the original link: http://www.mobileafrica.net/2281.htm.

Apologies to David, who put up a good piece for us!

Sorry!

The Multi-Facetted World of ICT Complaints

2009-04-24T09:42:00.000-07:00

It appears the longer I stay away from blogging, the higher the complaints mount!

It just struck me how in Ghana there are many stories just begging to be written; it also seems a large number of our fourth-columnists are unable to cover them all. This is why blogging is so useful and instructive.

For the past week, I have been battling with both SHOPRITE and GAME about their links. The stories are not necessarily apocryphal as they are annoying. First I am told that a goo number of people earlier in the day were able to purchase goods with the car ds so my card will work. Next, I realise after some ten minutes that it isn't going to go anywhere, especially as it's the evening.

E-Transactions from where?

I blame less the tellers--and more the shop, which I believe should ensure that it does its level best to make sure the links are working! A cashless society is not going to come anytime soon if even the retailers are not concerned about making sure their customers are happy.

I have been encouraged, though, by what I have been seeing in the papers about standards and all that. Standards as in Ghana Standards Board. Question, though, is whether they are the right agency to seek re-dress about e-transactions? I cannot help but wonder whether there is not a standard about these

A Decentralised ECG

On a happier note, I have also seen in the papers that it's possible to buy Cashpower electricity from new outlets. If it's true that there's one closer to home, then I will die a happier man!;-)

Bonfire of Laptop Vanities!

2009-04-16T09:17:00.000-07:00

Two--nay,three stories have conspired to remind me that maybe Someone out there wants us to remember that technology will come and go, but we humans will remain, and that there is more to life than broken-down laptops.

The first story is none other than my own laptop, which I've already blogged about in the "nightmare on HP street" series, which you can click in the labels below.

The second has to do with a ghanablogging colleague who bemoaned a few days ago how their laptop--same as mine--had the screen break down on them when they accidentally slept with the hand, or so, on it. The worst of it all is that the retailers would tell them that they could not have that HP Pavilion fixed here in Africa! (so you can imagine why the guy has still not contacted me)

Finally, my work colleague (the big boss) mentioned yesterday how his laptop "died" on him. His is a TOSHIBA, so I shudder to think what brand to consider next in my search for a laptop!!

Laptop's Final Destination: Osu, Centre of Accra

2009-04-09T07:15:00.000-07:00

Finally, I was able to take my laptop into the centre of town. Once I got there, I explained that I bought it almost a year ago, and the blank screen was on acocunt of a congenital defect, as it were. It was no virus; just a defect from teh HP Pavilion series.

Am unsure whether this has stuck with the retailers, but at least they told me they'd get back to me. I'm happy to know that ordering it will take only 5 working days.
I was asked to return my laptop till they've placed the order.

Considering how much it might cost, I think it might also take 5 days, multiplied by 30 days to raise sufficient money to buy the motherboard!

Here's to a judicious calculation/usage of my money for the next couple of months!

Monday Reflections of a Technology Kind: Fighting the Facebook Fraternity...HP Nightmare Re-Dux

2009-04-06T05:10:00.000-07:00

Encouraged by a couple of readers to this blog, I've decided to make it more active than ever before. Am not quite sure how, exactly--except to be as natural as possible. And not too long.

If you read some of my other blogs, there's a propensity to write mini-tomes. I want to avoid doing this here--even though technology and discussions on the information society do occasionally demand such dedication!

Let's start with the weekend listening to the BBC Worldservice, and hearing on Saturday that a girl saved a British boy who said he was going to commit suicide thru Facebook. You can read the story here: http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Facebook_Saves_British_Boy/551-100790-643.html.

A simple news search reveals a good 58,206 searches---and my broither, if that is not headache-inducing, I don't know what is! There are too many people writing about Facebook--and very well! that I don't really want to add to the noise.

ANd, really, I'm not talking about twitter.com. A colleague, who is apparently on it, was surprised to hear I had not joined it! So I write a weekly column on technology, but I don't honestly have to be a part of all processes to understand it do I? Oh, God, am getting a headache thinking about it. Whatever happened to the proof of the pudding is in the eating? Ouch...

So, I find myself in a bit of an existential paradox--to twitter or not to twitter? Whichever is the question?

You tell me!

Just before I go, I've managed to avoid going on Facebook today as well, and I plan to make occasional visits there through my mobile, through m.facebook.com--as I did over the weekend. I'm really looking for friend requests (though with over 400, I don't know why!!!) and being tagged on notes, which I do sometimes feel duty-bound to reply...

This week--finally--the laptop goes to the cleaners. Of sorts...

Survived One Day off Facebook!

2009-04-03T09:12:00.000-07:00

I thought I wouldn't be able to do it, but I have. You see, it helps if you're already naturally lazy like myself. It means, then, that you won't feel that but arsed to open another browser to open Facebook in it.

If you're wondering why I just couldn't open facebook in another tab in Opera, it is that when you do, you cannot input data to submit on the wall and whatnot. Eventually, you're left with opening the application in another browser.

This naturally makes it easier for one to wean oneself off it. Coupled with atavastic laziness, you're onto a winner, baby!

In all seriousness, managed to stretch the day off facebook to today--if only for a short while.

Meanwhile, my work on Sunday World newspaper has been held in abeyance for a while as they work on re-launching the format of their paper.

I haven't produced an article in two weeks and am getting withdrawal symptoms! But I am getting ideas, some of which include:

cyber-crime

regional integration & technology

Pan-African network (satellite)

cyber-crime!

On cyber-crime, there's quite a lot of it going on off-late, what with the Chinese spy network news of last week. I cannot help but wonder whether that kind of illegality will get that much worse as the information society becomes more sophisticated.

No Facebook till 12pm!

2009-04-02T02:46:00.000-07:00

It's not quite giving up Facebook for Lent, but it's more of not being distracted till lunchtime. I have too many things doing than adding what many have called the "noise" of the Internet. Good thing I'm not yet on twitter!

A good tip, in my view, is to open up Facebook on FIREFOX, whilst you open the rest of your "applications" on another browser, like Opera, which I use for regular work. That way, opening up firefox with Facebook becomes a drag, and hence inhibits the desire to open it.

Good luck!

HP Laptop update--the Mother of all Statements!

2009-04-01T09:48:00.000-07:00

I decided not to go to Osu--in the centre of town--to get my laptop checked out, but go to the shop where I bought it at Accra Mall.

I spoke to a lady there, who wondered whether my problem was not a virus? WTF?! I explained that she could do a google check for HP Pavilion tx1000, and see that it is an HP problem!

When I asked about the warranty, she was reluctant, explaining that she doesn't believe that it covers the motherboard!

For God's sake, the motherboard is the, well, mother of the laptop; without it, it cannot function! When someone talks like that, it only goes to confirm that they're unwilling to repair it for me free.

So, the answer, really, is to pay for it; need to find how to rob a bank (hopefully my account!) over the next couple of months to get it changed and repaired.

Triple-bloody-OUCH!

A Brave New (Laptop-less) World Beckons...

2009-03-27T09:42:00.000-07:00

I've been laptop-less for the past one week, choosing to put off going to the STARLITE shop in Osu, deep in the capital of Accra, which outlet is at Accra Mall, where I bought the-said HP laptop tx1000 last April. I know the warranty still covers, but I am prepared for the worst--that they'll tell me they won't cover it as the year is practically out.

Whatever the case may be, I'm thinking about procuring a DESKTOP computer for myself as a long-term investment. My old laptop (Packard-Bell) is unusable, and I am so in need of one. But I will cope!

Whilst I do that, I cannot help but wonder which regulatory authority exists anywhere, but an effective consumer association that sets standards on goods that come into the country. I was thinking that the National Communications Authority might be the one, but I believe probably that Ghana Standards Board is more apt.

My search continues--oh, and so does my need to take the laptop for examination and accept the consequences!!

Nightmare on HP Pavilion Street (1)

2009-03-26T09:22:00.000-07:00

Nightmare on HP Pavilion Street (1)

By E.K.Bensah II

It all began last week when a good friend of mine gave me some frantic missed calls, which ended up providing me with a compulsion to call, only to obtain a profound revelation about the state of a particular series of HP laptops.

His misadventure began almost twelve months ago when he purchased a sleek, HP Pavilion tx1000 Entertainment laptop from one of the retailers at Accra Mall. I won’t mention the price—it might just give him a small heart attack, considering the current woes!—but suffice-to-say it was a price that befits the mean, sleek status. To cut a long story short, there he was having happily used it for the past eleven and a half months when suddenly, the screen goes blank. That he had put his work on “hibernate” was sufficient to prompt him to switch the laptop off and on many times to see whether it was not a glitch.

No go.

He related that he plugged the machine on; took the battery out (adding curses for good measure)—all to no avail. Deciding to take it to a professional, he gave it to his colleague at work who did a google search—only to read that there were manifold—strike that, hundreds of—complaints about that same laptop! The genesis of the laptop defect finds its origin in an NVDIA chip that is so defective it’s not funny, enabling the laptop to heat up unnecessarily. Times I had used his laptop were times I wished I had brought an egg along to fry on my lap: no need explaining the profound heat that emanates from it.

The story about a defective chip that HP is clearly aware of but plays possum over does little to assuage the frustrations of many increasingly disappointed HP users. HP has pedigree, so this attitude is not just uncalled for, but totally out of order. I have not quite had the epiphany that will show me the way on what agencies in our dear country cases like these would require the attention of, but I will certainly get back to you on them.

Tech Appeal 191

Given the spate of lights-off off late, it might be a good idea for ECG to help Ghanaians a bit more by establishing a toll-free number. I have been calling the 021.611.611 number for the past few weeks the lights have been disappointing us, but it’s getting a tad expensive. I continue to wonder what the point is of a hotline that inhibits people from calling it! Undoubtedly, you will always have consumers call—out of frustration or hope is moot—but it stands to reason that calling a landline from your mobile phone (which is frankly more ubiquitous these days than the former), coupled with the nebulous talk-time tax is off-putting. I would like to humbly appeal to ECG to think of going the way of the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) that has a hotline on mobile networks for their own hotline!
Another noteworthy development during the past week is a sobering one of deaths on the roads. A combination of illiterate and ill-disciplined drivers driving very badly has conspired to remind us that there needs to be something done rather quickly on sensitizing both car-owners and otherwise about road safety. To that end, it is great to hear from NRSC hotline (ONETOUCH 0800.10.800) that they now have an MTN version of the hotline, which can be reached on MTN 18008. One would be glad to know that this is a toll-free line! The appeal this week is to ask NRSC to ensure that there are sufficient media campaigns about the hotline so that everyone can be involved in alerting the hotline (and the Motor Transport Unit of the Ghana Police (MTTU) by extension) of non-roadworthy cars; speeding bus-drivers and whatnot.

Highlights on Ghanablogging.com

The initiative for Ghanablogging.com started in 2008. The brainchild of a group of dedicated Ghanaian bloggers, it is fair to say that it is one Kajsa Hallberg Adu who has spearheaded the group, and put energy into ensuring that there are monthly meetings. Over the next couple of editions, there will be more about the group featured in here, but today, I begin the first of highlights that have featured on the website ghanablogging.com

We begin with *Accra by Day & Night*, which latest entry “Cautionary Tales of Taxis” provides a vignette of some of the things that go wrong when you take a taxi in Accra and it blurts to a rude stop: “The reason was a simple one: petrol--or lack thereof! We had to wait some ten minutes before the taxi driver ran up to GOIL, get some fuel, and get back to the car to fill it up”.

Nigerian internet entrepreneur *David Ajao* writes about visiting the E-tranzact show that took place at Aviation Social Centre, but starts off by giving us an insight in to what the service is all about: “eTranzact is an online real-time payment system that allows account holders to pay for goods and services purchased from merchants, transfer funds to any bank account, cell phone, any card, pay bills, order products e.t.c. This is possible because etranzact allows cardholders to use any of the following channels to transact: web (using any internet browser in a secured transaction), mobile phones, POS terminals (Point of Sale), ATMs, or bank branches”.

*Ramblings of a Procrastinator in Accra* entertains us with her piece on smoking in Ghana, and reminds us of some of the uncomfortable views Ghanaians hold on smokers of the female persuasion. She writes: “Smoking in Ghana is an interesting phenomenon.You hardly see people smoking in public but when you go out at night, swarms of smokers come out of hiding. Well, maybe these folks are mostly social smokers. There is something socially unacceptable about smoking in Ghana. Seeing a woman smoke is almost considered an abomination and there is an unflappable stereotype that a woman smoking by herself in a club/pub is a commercial sex worker!”. She concludes with a little warning: “…to all you ladies who may find yourself flying solo out at night ciggie in hand.”

We finally end with *Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African* who offers a candid piece on how most of the best comedians in Ghana are…all Nigerian! He writes: “Nigerian comedy has become viral and it's not only popular on Facebook. It's popular on the pen drives (USB drives for y'all non-Ghana' lingo savvy people) of Ghanaian students. As a shout-out to these pen drives, I'll feature a video I got from one, about the genius of Naija's Klint da Drunk. Watch him make Nigerian reggae music. The emergence of these Nigerian comedians, at least on the West African scene, has spurned more people going into stand-up comedy. Some of these guys are Julius Agwu, Teju BabyFace, Okey Bakassi, I Go Die, Ali Baba, AY, etc. You can check out all these guys on Youtube.”.

ekbensah@gmail.com / ONETOUCH.755.08.45 / http://twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com

Welcome to the Real Three “G”--the Globalised Google Generation!

2009-03-11T10:17:00.000-07:00

By E.K.Bensah II

In many more ways than we can imagine, technology has begun to assume a multi-disciplinary approach. In other words, you find that it is associated with, say, the security services (how the police, for example, can make effective use of camera phones and checking traffic infractions; and the service industry (as exemplified by how you can place orders online to have your food delivered, for example).

Only last Saturday, the BBC world service, in its “Heart and Soul” programme looked at the degree to which religion had gone hi-tech to the extent that people were even cyber-worshipping, without the need to step into a physical building. The conclusion the presenter drew was that for all the double-edged swords that come with the web, it continues to offer a platform for freedom of expression of all kinds; in that respect, he averred, it might not be as bad a place to worship as any other.

In my last article, I touched tangentially on the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), without fully going into how ICTs would help serve the organization. In this week's article, I yet again refer to it, albeit superficially, in the context of the multi-disciplinary approach of technology. That I was able to, in two past articles, look at the role of technology as it pertains to both the small and big screen, in my opinion, speaks volumes of how integrated and wired it has become in our lives. What it also does, though, is buttress the multi-disciplinary aspect that has been conferred it.

This hydra-headed element of technology is both interesting and noteworthy. It is interesting because it enhances many facets of our lives; and noteworthy because it makes us pause to reflect and question whether there is sufficient literature on an emerging discipline. Should there be insufficient material out there that pertains to the developing information society of developing countries like that of Ghana, then surely, it behooves not just our ICT practitioners and academics join forces, but also our omnipresent regulators that have taken too much flak for too long to help educate us.

NCA Continues to Fail Ghanaian Consumers!

Let us take the case of the NCA. If we were to visit the website of Independent UK regulator OFCOM at www.ofcom.org.uk the week of 9 March, 2009, we see that it is consumer-oriented, with, inter alia, features on how the global recession will affect consumers; how consumers can make and submit complaints to OFCOM on harmful or offensive material they hear on the radio; research and market data and advice for consumers. Back here in Ghana, never mind that you'll get similar material, you don't even know what website to check the NCA on--is it http://www.nca.innovategh.com/, or the erstwhile http://www.nca.gov.gh? The

fact that there's a new government might be all well and good, but I don't see how the website needs to change from its server each time there is a change in government. If this were the case, then surely the http://www.Ghana.gov.gh portal would be non-functioning; yet the very week the new government came into office, the site was updated!

Still on the multi-disciplinary approach, just as in the face of the global credit crisis, we seem ready to bury globalization and cast it back to the bowels of the earth; it has made me wonder whether it is not analogous to the study of technology?

Cruising to a Google Generation…

At the superficial level, could we not say that like globalization, technology is everywhere we turn--from our mobile handsets to the more-obvious desktop and laptop computers. On another level, could we not surmise that technology has globalised us all? Let's face it: here in Ghana, how many tech-savvy consumers of technology do not own either a YAHOO or GMAIL account--or both, and a Facebook account for good measure? If there is any distinguishing characteristic between me and the average literate [and middle class] Ghanaian, will I not find affinity with them in these three?

For most of us who can remember when Google became a verb (back in 2006), you might note that we never say “I'll MSN/askjeeves/altavista this”; the refrain is all too familiar--“I'll google” this or that. This surely has to be the google generation that never was! But it is also more--it is a google generatiojn that is globalised; globalised because everyone is talking about it.

…that is Globalised?

My only problem with this Globalised Google Generation is that we run the risk of becoming perfunctory beings operating on similar levels of consciousness. Surely the beauty of life is the diversity of it? Why risk becoming imitations of each other when we can become radicalized, different beings? Then I think about the astronomical rise of Facebook, and wonder whether I am truly living in 2009. The Facebook phenomenon has been discussed elsewhere and this column more times than one can imagine, but its phenomenal status cannot -and will not - be sneezed at. Its revolution has not--and will not--be televised.

Long before Facebook came to steal its thunder, MySpace held the fort as the veritable social networking site. These days, it seems to be so old news to even mention it. Yet, when we pause for a nano-second, we realize that there was a rationale for calling it a social networking site. We did not need Aristotle to remind us that man is a social animal before we went out there to start networking and connecting. We have always sought to connect and integrate. Human relationships are perhaps the greatest redemption of our desire to connect, and marriage, as one British commentator Chief Rabbi Jonathon Sacks said on BBC Radio Four in 2000, is “the greatest redemption of our loneliness”. What technology ultimately does is offer one of many platforms to facilitate socializing and networking--with Facebook taking it to amazing levels.

The Real "three G"

Some mobile providers have forever-talked about offering us 3G services, further connecting us. Some of us--Luddites and all--will choose to opt out; the up-and-coming generation might dig in as if their lives depended on it--till they get bored. Given that there is only so much technology can offer, it has become incumbent on us to find how it can complement--and not serve as a substitute--of our lives. I don't know about you, but in so many ways I am in a paradoxical way happy to be part of what I call the “real three G”: the Globalised, Google Generation.

ENDs

West Africa--the New Telecom's Frontier?

2008-08-22T07:09:00.000-07:00

West Africa--the New Telecom's Frontier?

By E.K.Bensah II

From Ghana Telecom to Nigeria Telecom, the privatization bandwagon is on course in the ECOWAS region. If you recall that last week we touched on the West African neighbour of Mali's landline set for privatization by the end of the year, you might also remember that NiTel was broached. Although incoming Globacom made some noises a few weeks ago supporting GT's divestiture, the country itself has kept rather mute on what lessons the GT/Vodafone debate might hold for the regional giant.

It has always often been said that if Ghana is the gateway to West Africa, Nigeria is the destination. This much was confirmed when a couple of editions ago, we broached the issue of Stanbic Bank's acquisition of a Nigerian bank after having missed the Ghanaian one - Agricultural Development Bank --by a whisker. In the telco industry, the situation is not that much different. The exception in the drama that has unfolded over GT is that Vodafone has itself kept mute over its potential acquisition of NiTel. There has been little in the press to suggest that it remains interested in NiTel.

Nonetheless, the Nigerian parliamentarians are unperturbed and have set the pace - unlike in Ghana - on ensuring some degree of accountability.

Judging from the Nigerian press at least, the debate has been non-existent to the fever-pitch degree here in Ghana. Instead, the lawmakers, accepting a major contention of NiTel having failed, have sought to find out why. To this end, the Senate Committee on Communications is to probe the roles played by concerned stakeholders in the fall of NiTel.

Nigeria's Vanguard newspaper reports that some of those that contributed to the downfall of NiTel virtually defrauded the company of billions of naira in dues. Chairman of the committee Senator Sylvester Anyanwu at a press briefing alleged that the private operators were using as much as 75% of the capacity and infrastructure of NiTel for free, with some of them "enjoying a two-year rides in the company".

Concrete steps have been taken to hold such people accountable, including a letter to the President of the Republic Umara Yar'Adua asking him to turn down the appointment of BNP Paribas as consultants and advisers in their repeated attempts at selling NiTel. Secondly, the Committee has managed to trace the origin of NiTel's downturn to 2003 when a putative Dutch company-Pentascope--managed it [does Telenor in GT come to mind?] turning NiTels "profit profile into a loss despite the inflow of a N40 billion unsolicited loan for the company." Third, unlike the lack of accountability surrounding Ghana's National Communications Authority (NCA), the Committee has asked the latter's Nigerian counterpart--better known as the Nigerian Communications Commission(NCC)--to "get off the fence and take a position in this ongoing debate and investigation of the irregularities in NiTel." Finally, the Chairman of the Committee listed MTN Nigeria; Starcomms, Globacom; Shell; Ericsson; First Bank; Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas among many others who have failed to give account of their financial obligations to Nitel. This is no different in Ghana, where many companies owed GT millions, but was never broached in the contemplation of the sale to Vodafone.

In order to ensure that there is significant movement, the committee has asked the security agencies "to ensure that current and former staff of companies which played a role in the past botched privatization of NiTel were made to account for their deeds." These include the Bureau of Public Enterprises(BPE), which has claimed to have played no role in the whole affair--despite the fact that, as the paper avers, "former staff of the BPE…played inglorious roles in the …sale of NiTel". Unlike in Ghana where the NCA issued a fine and left no room for enforcing the fine, Nigeria has gone a different way. Failure to respond to the above queries, the paper continues, will force the Committee to invoke its powers under certain sections of the Constitution to ensure that they comply.

Vivian Reding's Unwitting Push of Vodafone to Africa?

Like a bad smell, the ramifications of the acquisition by Britain-based Vodafone will not go away. Although most Ghanaians seem to be tight-lipped now about the sale, especially because they have been put before a fait accompli, elsewhere, the news is not so bright for Vodafone.

Forget the fact that Vodafone is in court in India over tax issues at the moment. Let's just troop down to the UK itself for a while. According to Mobile News, the UK and Spain used to be Vodafone's "cash cow". Now, the revenues in those markets are not so hot. This is the reason why it's been necessary for Vodafone to expand into Eastern European and African markets. The article reports that in its own home market of the UK, it has "shed customers." With its churn up, "its voice revenues were down."

On top of it all, the so-called combative European Commissioner for Information Society Vivian Reding - characteristically hot on the heels of creating opportunities for consumers - has managed to sideline a number of the mobile phone operators with her campaign on termination rates and the cutting of roaming charges that have normally been rather prohibitive. Companies like Vodafone have seen the future as not being bright, and jumped the pond to escape the wrath of Reding. As a consequence, 140,000 customers have been added to the Vodafone giant in Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa.

The coming of Vodafone to these markets have however coincided with phenomenal developments in the mobile phone, or telco industry--and no where has this been more significant than in West Africa.

Mali's Privatisation Process Unclear

It is a fact that come the end of 2008, Mali's landline SOTELMA will be privatized. Apart from the fact that we now know that BNP Paribas is a consultant/transaction adviser for the process--much like in the NiTel process above--little else is indicated in the press about the state of play. It appears that although the francophone press has touched on it, the Anglophone press probably could not care less!

Burkina Faso's Landline Goes for IPO

Meanwhile, also in West Africa, the small ECOWAS country is pursuing an Initial Public Offer(IPO) for a (private) 20% stake in its state-owned ONATEL. The francophone online paper lesafriques.com reports that the state will retain 23%, whilst personnel will get 6%. It's unclear what happens to the remaining 51%!

Regulating Guinean Telcos, Re-Nationalising Soltelgui

The small ECOWAS country will be getting its equivalent of Ghana's NCA in a regulatory authority that has yet to be named. Tibou Kamara, the Guinean Minister of Communication and New Technologies, has indicated that the month of August will see the country's first regulatory body. It is interesting to read that the Minister believes that a lack of a regulatory regime and a body that can play its rightful role is a "handicap" in the "normalization of services rendered by operators." He says that it is not a witch-hunt, but an opportunity to ensure that all actors [in the industry] have a level playing field.

In the meantime, the country has the distinction of being the first out of Mali, Nigeria; Ghana; and Nigeria listed here to have 60% of its shares sold back to it by Telekom Malaysia by the end of September 2008 in a Settlement and Transfer agreement (STA). TeleGeography maintains that Soltelgui--Guinea's state-owned company--was established in 1993, only to be privatized in the same year that Ghana Telecom was born--1995, when Telekom Malaysia purchased 60% of a stake for $US45million. After a decade of ownership, it seems the Malasyian telco has had enough and is up and leaving "as part of a broader review of its international investment strategy to

focus on geographic regions closer to home. Could the same happen some day in Ghana?

Ends

Mali's SOTELMA to be privatised

2008-07-28T05:39:00.001-07:00

from: http://www.itu.int/ituweblogs/treg/Mali+Sotelma+To+Be+Privatized.aspx

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Mali - Sotelma to be privatized

In the context of the telecommunications sector reform, the Government of the Republic of Mali has decided to privatize Sotelma (Société des télécommunications du Mali) under the financial advice of the investment bank Linkstone Capital. The privatisation strategy is as follows : A 51% stake will be sold to a Strategic Partner that meets the prequalification criteria; 19% stake will be sold in a public offer ; 10% of the share capital will be reserved for the employees of Sotelma. The Government will hold a 20% share.

See Press Release

Source: Portail du Gouvernement de la République du Mali

Africa | Privatization/Foreign Investment

Sunday, July 13, 2008 3:19:27 AM (W. Europe Standard Time, UTC+01:00) | Related posts:
Guinea - New Telco Regulation Agency
Africa - African Association of Telecommunications Regulators created
Burkina Faso - IFC to support incumbent
Africa - E-access and Usage
Algeria - mobile operators shutting down SIM cards
Algeria - 3rd Generation (3G) mobile communications licenses

When will the National Communications Authority stand up?

2008-07-24T03:02:00.000-07:00

The NCA is an agency of the government with oversight to, in effect, regulate the telecommunications sector and implement terms of Ghana’s National Telecommunications Policy. According to the policy (2004) that can be downloaded from the Internet, while the Ministry of Communications is “responsible for the definition and elaboration of Government policy regarding telecommunications”, the NCA has a number of roles that it plays in implementing the policy, which include: “regulation of competition, including interconnection; tariff regulation consistent with Ministry policies; monitoring of operator activity, performance, and compliance”, and last but not least “consumer protection.”

Reading the policy itself is enlightening, for the policy sounds robust. There is a section on “Principles of Transparent regulation” that explains that NCA “shall promote public participation in and awareness of its activities and ensure that the public has adequate access to sector information.” Only last week, I checked to see whether the website of the NCA that is still under construction, and with some limited information about the sector, has managed to offer some new information. There is still nothing. Neither is there what there ought to be--as stipulated in the policy: an Annual Report in collaboration with the Ministry of Communication publishing “up-to-date industry information…” made available “for public review.”

Protection for Whom?
In what would prove to be an unprecedented move last year, the Authority not only threatened ONETOUCH and MTN to stop selling re-charge cards, but that they should also improve the quality of their service, otherwise huge fines would be slapped on them. This was a historic feat of epic proportions it appeared, for even with the psychedelic MTN plane then-still-perched at the Tetteh-Quarshie interchange and MTN flags virtually drowning any Ghanaian ones, the Authority barked. At the eleventh hour, the Authority yielded, allowing both mobile providers get away with only an agreement to improve their services.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t call that consumer protection.

Giving customer service a new life?
Then there is the recent case of Gateway Broadcasting Services (GBS) that entered the country in October last year. I do not know of anyone--and I know three official establishments around my workplace use GBS--that has been able to get through to GBS customer service. Beyond one who had given out his mobile number to subscribers (regrettably, he is no longer working for the company), no-one else can be contacted when one’s service is cut off -- either accidentally or not. When your payment has been made, the several landlines that have been given will forever put you through to a call centre operating outside Ghana in…Southern Africa, where, it stands to reason, there is a more clinical approach in dealing with you, given that the people are not in the country. As helpful and “nice” as they sound, nothing beats having Ghanaians help when I want my service re-connected , even if I have to have to lose my voice in doing so.

The anecdotes aside, such continuous practices remain an indictment of the NCA’s work. As a regulator of the telecommunications industry, it behoves it to ensure standard regulation--as stipulated in the policy. To wit: "all public telecommunications operators shall be required to establish service level agreements with their customers, which identify the minimum quality of service standards to which customers are entitled, and the remedies and compensation available when service falls below such standards."

Concrete steps
The biggest step to ensuring regulation, in my humble opinion, would seem to be a clear and necessary *adoption* of the National Telecommunications Policy as a working document for all in the first place! Another issue is of toll-free numbers. The other day, the sixth biggest bank called to inform me that they now have a toll-free number that operate 24/7. If banks can do it, why not our MDAs? And certainly, why not NCA? Just a small query: I noticed the toll-free number works on the ONETOUCH network for now. In the event of government passing through any privatisation of GT by way of a totally-unnecessary emergency bill, will Vodafone not seek to make profit by disbanding the toll-free nature that GT has a great interest in maintaining?

Nigeria’s NiTel to be Privatised…for Vodafone?
As if the attempt to privatize Ghana’s national provider Ghana Telecom is insufficient, British-based Vodafone is ready to hit the Nigerian market with the acquisition of ECOWAS neighbour Nigeria’s only landline provider. Rumours and accusations of the phone company being “beleaguered” and “inefficient” don’t wash with me. They are code-words for any excuse to privatize. An article in Nigeria’s *Punch” newspaper actually goes further arguing that: “…we can be certain about one thing: NITEL is currently bedeviled[sic] by multifaceted problems. These problems include malfunctioning lines, erratic billing system, poor customer satisfaction, infrastructural decay and a backlog of worker’s salaries…” It seems to me that chance would be a fine thing were NiTel to escape privatization.

NiTel Privatisation Not New
As far back as May 2002, then-President Obasanjo was planning a divestiture of the state-run phone company. It had been scheduled for March of that year, but had to be postponed for September 2002. It is interesting to note that still at that time, 51% was what was being offered to the so-called strategic investors!

On a more serious note, whereas the incumbent Ghanaian administration has put forth 70% of GT to be privatized, even the horror stories associated with NiTel have warranted 50% to Vodafone. Why such discrepancy one wonders? Is it that Ghana Telecom has more of these calamities at its doorstep than NiTel? Let’s examine them for a second. Last time I looked, GT was offering broadband4u (broadband4u.com.gh); dialup4u; ExZeed company which offers 24hour service to ONETOUCH subscribers, where MTN has not a 24-hr hotline, and Tigo’s is non-existent (exists only as a number); a mobile provider since 2000 (albeit itself bedeviled with astronomical prices when it started, with sim cards then going for around GHC150!); Ghana Telecom University; EasyFone (which enables landlines to be set up more easily than ever before).

According to the reports I’ve been reading, M-Tel, NiTel’s mobile operation that is a year younger than NiTel (having been established on October 2001), has only 176,000 subscribers. Compare that to MTN Nigeria that has 15,873,000 active lines. Switch to Ghana, and we find that where MTN Ghana is around 4 million subscribers, with ONETOUCH around 1.4m. That is subscribers over one million, yet Nigeria’s is able to attract only a fraction. Despite this, it is being sold for 50%!

Is it me, or is there something odd about the whole rationale of the GT purchase?

Still always about politics?
Then I think, and think some more, and remember how early last year, South Africa’s Standard Bank, operating under Stanbic Bank, was so keen to take over state-owned Agricultural Development Bank (ADB). One of its main motivations for the attempted sale (which incidentally, the government, according to financial papers two weeks ago have *de-prioritized*) was so that it could use the entry of Ghana as a gateway to penetrate the Nigerian market. A year ago today, Reuters reported that Standard Bank had bought a part of Nigeria’s IBTC Chartered Bank Plc, which expertise is in investment banking with 55 branches across Nigeria. Standard Bank spokeswoman Kim Howard would say that "If you are going to have a pan African strategy, you have to include Nigeria."

Looks like this time, they decided to strike Nigeria after an attempted one here in Ghana. Whether they will succeed remains moot. Whatever will happen with the sale of GT, it has become crystal-clear that the stage has certainly been set for a new revolution before our very eyes.

Forget the Industrial Revolution. We are all sitting at the cusp of a revolution that implicates a sector so critical to our lives we could never have imagined. To think that a consortium of former MTN executives are bidding—so the telecoms newsletter Balancing Act reports – for NiTel is not just a reflection of the motivation of big people with big capital, but where the next wars might be fought. Forget your Cold War. Prepare yourself for the Telecoms Wars.

Vodafone’s Purchase of Ghana Telecom: Matters Arising

2008-07-10T09:05:00.000-07:00

The 70% acquisition by Vodafone of state-owned Ghana Telecom may be a done-and-dusted deal, subject only now to parliamentary approval in the august house. There are, however, serious issues arising that merit some consideration.

First of all, one would have to be from Mars not to know that this is an election year. After the announcement was made in 2006 to privatise, why is it only now that the putative sale has gone through, some five months before general elections? Secondly, despite the fact that there was a breather after France Telecom and Portugal Telecom were rejected some months back, at what point did Vodafone up and decide to make the bid, which, if we believe the opposition, was a non-starter, on account of the fact that there were other bidders ready to pay more than the $960million?

In December 2007, Kenya, where Vodafone operates as a mobile operator under Vodafone Kenya, was in the concluding stages of privatising state-owned Telkom Kenya, with the winning bidders France Telecom taking control by 21 December, 2007. The uncanny similarity of an opaque bidding process coupled with a privatisation so close to general elections makes for an explosive coincidence that is so serious it’s not funny. One might be tempted to think that this has nothing to do with Vodafone, till we read that an offshore-registered company by the name of Mobitelea was offered an opportunity to acquire 25% of Vodaphone Kenya Limited at the same price Vodafone had acquired them. This prompted civil society groups in Kenya to argue that “the privatisation of Telkom Kenya cannot…be deemed regular until the true picture of its ceding of [mobile provider] Safaricom shares to Vodafone Kenya is unravelled and rectified.”

Here, there is little proof that anything irregular has gone on despite the manner in which the sale went through so quickly, but reading the *Financial Times* account of the sale was sufficient to prompt speculation that given that the country is experiencing a budget deficit, the government might have seen a sale so close to the election as an opportunity to make amends around the economy.

Practices elsewhere
Still, whilst Kenya can talk about Vodafone Kenya bidding for a part of Safaricom, Ghana cannot even talk about a Ghanaian consortium ready to buy GT. This is one of the unique things about this privatisation. The online encyclopaedia Wikipedia tells us that Vodafone has three networks in the Middle East and Africa that are majority-owned: Egypt, Qatar and now Ghana. In the first case, state-owned Telecom Egypt owns 45% of Vodafone Egypt. In the Qatari case, Vodafone went in as a mobile operator, securing a 45% stake in Qatar Telecom, the Middle Eastern country’s second mobile licence provider. When we come to Ghana, a significant 70% was not only at stake, but also of our state-owned provider, prompting one to wonder why such a high figure, and why the land-line provider? Reports in the Ghanaian media indicate that Globacom had also made a bid, but had to settle for second best through a mobile service.

Questions Unanswered
Those are not the only questions. Reports in the media suggest that the minority’s concern was that Vodafone comes in as a strategic investor with little experience in landline provision. That it is setting up new services in New Zealand, where Vodafone also operates, that look like landlines and mobile lines combined should not be sufficient to assuage our fears of how it will manage our broadband services, national fibre optic system, and others. What of our national security? There is anecdotal evidence of our state security – BNI -- monitoring landlines; how far will the security services go in allowing a mobile provider with plenty of capital to share the monitoring of our landlines? Thirdly, all mobile providers have had to pass through GT for their operations. Now that Vodafone’s acquisition is semi-complete, will Vodafone’s supreme interest be in the regulation of the other providers, or a rough-and-ready competitor alongside them? Will the lines be indefinitely blurred on all these issues?

Making Gmail Safer
The London-based Guardian newspaper reports that Google is out to make life easier for all of us—at least those using gmail.com. Though the service has not been wholly rolled out yet, the new feature aims to make using sending and receiving emails through gmail a safe experience, especially for those using Firefox and Internet Explorer 7. The official Gmail blog says that “at the bottom of your inbox, you’ll see information about the time of the last activity on your account and whether it’s still open in another location.” There is also a link that will show “Recent activity”, indicating when and how you logged on (either POP3 or Mobile), as well as your IP address. It will also enable you sign out of all sessions remotely.

I can say from personal experience that many a time, I’ve been able to simultaneously access my gmail account through the computer at work; through my mobile phone through ONETOUCH’s GPRS; as well as through an external device that can connect to the internet. It’s even possible to open two pages in gmail, where you can compose a message in one, and view incoming mails in another. This new system might clearly put paid to such practices which can only be the boon to a potential scammer.

I can say for Yahoo that when you log into messenger online, it indicates to all of your friends that you are “mobile”. Anytime I have tried to access it on my work computer, I’ve had a prompt warning that I am logged in elsewhere. Such 2.5G services of GPRS enable us do more than we could ever dreamt of…

…including MMS on ONETOUCH
Given the discussions over the acquisition of Ghana Telecom, it was very easy for one to speculate that the bad service that ONETOUCH was providing was due to sabotage. That calls to the 24/7 hotline produced a degree of mendacity or ignorance by the call-service people that there was nothing wrong with the network only went to fuel speculation that sabotage was in the works. We may never know what caused ONETOUCH to provide customers with irregular service from the beginning of July up to a few days ago until they tell us. What I can say, though, is that despite the irregular service, which included the signals being at their very lowest, and beeps from phones that there was “no service”, the multi-media messaging service seemed to start working at that same time!

I know only because when I took my sim card from my phone to put in another one, I received a message asking me to accept “multimedia settings”, which I reluctantly did. Deciding to test the waters, I sent my other GPRS-enabled ONETOUCH number an MMS. Within minutes, it had been sent, and I had received it on the other number. This was rather ironic, considering the ONETOUCH network itself was working poorly. Still, not one to complain too much, I tried again, and again. The MMS does work now. Contrary to the promotions that had gone out a couple of months ago about free MMS, which spun mendacity to its highest when it claimed that the servers were down, when in actual fact, the system had not been set up properly, the promotions that came with July have revealed a promising ONETOUCH user experience—provided we can make those calls!

US airports lose more than 12,000 laptops a week
Whether you believe this information to be hyped up by computer manufacturer Dell or not, bottom line is that according to a survey by the Ponemon Institute, around 637,000 laptops are lost every year at US airports. The report maintains that “close to 10,278 laptops are reported lost every week at 36 of the largest US airports, and 65% of those lost are not reclaimed.”

Dell has used this data to launch a security service that uses technologies such as Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking to recover lost laptops. Furthermore, the US Federal Trade Commission has produced a leaflet “Keeping Laptops From Getting Lost or Stolen”. A website is also available to this effect: http://www.OnGuardOnline.gov

ENDs

2007 Africa - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband Overview

2008-06-05T04:13:00.001-07:00

http://www.budde.com.au/buddereports/4392/2007_Africa_-_Telecoms_Mobile_and_Broadband_Overview.aspx

Fwd: UN'S INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY BODY TO FOCUS ON FOUR MAJOR CONCERNS

2008-05-19T05:10:00.001-07:00

link to Global Alliance: http://www.un-gaid.org/en/node/124?page=3

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <UNNews@un.org>
Date: 2008/5/18
Subject: UN'S INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY BODY TO FOCUS ON FOUR MAJOR CONCERNS
To: news2@secint00.un.org

UN'S INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY BODY TO FOCUS ON FOUR MAJOR CONCERNS
New York, May 18 2008 6:00PM
A leading United Nations body working to spread the benefits of information technology should concentrate on the four areas that most concern people around the world, the chair of that body said today.

Craig Barrett, Chair of the UN Global Alliance for Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and Development, told the third annual meeting of the Global Alliance in Kuala Lumpur that people were most interested about: getting software and hardware, connectivity, local content and ICT education.

The Global Alliance "should concentrate on programmes that focus on access," such as public-private partnerships, community centres and ICT for schools, said Mr. Barrett, who is also the Chairman of Intel.

It should concentrate "on the fundamentals of getting connectivity; on local content, which can create huge local economic possibilities; and on educating people on using the technology -- and there are marvellous new education programmes out there that are reaching millions of teachers."

The top UN official for economic and social affairs also called for a more focused scope. "The Global Alliance is at a turning point," said Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Sha Zukang, whose department hosts the Alliance.

"It has the brand -- it is a big name now. It has the recognition, the platform and the networks," he told some 150 participants of the Alliance's Strategic Council. "It has launched initiatives and partnerships that are already yielding initial results. It is now important to better focus the work of the Alliance on fewer activities of strong impact."

Maximus Ongkili, Malaysia's Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation and co-chair of the meeting, said his country and the Global Alliance had a similar approach on the issue: both were involving all interested parties, mobilizing global partnerships, stressing the importance of human capital and emphasizing knowledge-sharing.

"ICT is gaining importance in addressing climate change and the food crisis," said International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré, a member of the 17-person Alliance Steering Committee. "On these issues, ICT is part of the solution, not part of the problem," he said.

The Alliance, which was launched in Kuala Lumpur in June 2006, had already achieved results, Mr. Barrett said, such as "improvements in education, health care and the ability of governments to communicate with their citizens." A health-care project supported by the Alliance had won an award for the best application of ICT in India, he noted.

Global Alliance Executive Coordinator Sarbuland Khan said that in the past year the body had organized or co-organized some 15 events involving over 6,000 participants, including the first-ever meeting bringing together the private sector and the UN on the issue of climate change.

Created by the UN Secretary-General in 2006, the Global Alliance seeks to mobilize the human, financial and technical resources required to bridge major gaps in ICT infrastructure, services and applications across the world. Its main areas of focus are education, health, economic development and online government services. The Alliance is self-funded, and has been able to raise close to $1 million per year from governments, corporations, foundations and other sources.

2008-05-18 00:00:00.000

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OFCOM's report on tomorrow's wireless world

2008-05-16T04:53:00.000-07:00

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/technology/overview/randd0708/

Sleepless & Wireless in Accra (UNCTAD XII)

2008-05-05T03:56:00.001-07:00

Sleepless & Wireless in Accra (UNCTAD XII)

By E.K.Bensah II

I had the privilege of being a participant at the just-ended UNCTAD XII conference. In my view, it brought into very sharp relief not just how sophisticated international conferences have become, but how far the information society has come of age.

When I first started writing about the information society, I could almost imagine how high eyebrows might be raised at the prospect of such a society, where everyone is connected 24/7. Glitches notwithstanding, throughout the UNCTAD conference proper, that is exactly *how* connected we were. This is not some kind of digital exuberance; this is the reality of the twenty-first century, where ubiquitous internet connectivity is instrumental in our homes, work and private lives.

Take the case of a colleague from a sister organisation in Geneva. Throughout the gathering, he was behind his laptop—either at the makeshift secretariat that had been set up for NGOs at the NGO centre – or in the official plenaries and roundtables making notes that he needed to collate and send back to Switzerland for publication. He was far from the only one. Back in the eighties when I would hit my pubescent period – before wireless and when I was even too young to know what international conferences were about – I re-call seeing on television people carrying huge notebooks and pens all over the place.

Today, the laptop is *de rigueur*. In other words, it has become a necessity not just by dint of its portability, but its utility, for if a laptop were useful only for playing DVDs and games, they would find precious space in people's luggage for meetings and conferences. That these portable devices have come to represent the (portable) version of what you would get on a desktop – in the manner in which it offers word processing and picture-upload capability and transfer (multimedia) among many other things – is one of main reasons why they have been recognised as important communication tools.

Battery woes

This is not to say that the pen and paper are dead—far from it—for one challenge about laptops is their battery. Very few are able to offer more than two hours battery life; when they do, it means you are paying rather steeply for a second battery. At UNCTAD XII, the pen and paper were great complements, for they enabled one to jot down ideas and prepare questions in a way that the laptop would not.

Then there is, of course, the A/C cord; the colleague in question had an issue of his cord being broken. It necessitated a change to a two-pin one for his trip back to Geneva. For the two days that that cord was not fixed, he could only use his laptop for some twenty-odd minutes, ensuring that he save every vestige of power he could. At the very worst, he worked on the desktop computers that the UNCTAD secretariat had provided the centre, so that the laptop could be spared. He did say one interesting thing that precipitated a lot of food for thought. When it was suggested him that he use my chord to beef up the power in his laptop, he decried how "that would force me to work even more." At one point he even lamented having broken from his work for dinner, when his laptop was waiting for him (to do some work)!

Creating 24/7 work?

While these may serve as funny anecdotes, in my view, it is also symptomatic of what I consider to be a worrying trend on how laptops and portable devices have legitimised the need to work *anytime*, which is not such a bad thing if you are a workaholic. For those of us that are not, that time for a break is critical for the soul in more ways than you can imagine, plus the fact that you get to take a break from staring or blinking incessantly at a screen that is bound to cause headache-inducing issues for the UN itself. I am not quite sure that the UN's International Labour Organisation would be very happy to see conference delegates working into the night to deliver reports on a conference of a sister organisation!

In all seriousness, at UNCTAD XII, the information society was well and truly alive—and very palpable. At the meetings, the laptops came in all shapes and sizes, and were, shall-we-say, well-ensconced on thighs (of all shapes and sizes) probably burning them against the very cold air conditioning flowing from the gargantuan systems that had been set up. Some of those who had their laptops on them were producing semi-transcriptions; others were writing draft reports; many others were simply writing notes from the meeting by capturing the essence of the discussions, with a view to sending them off to their organisations.

Some of these reports would turn into news items—and even blog posts—as exemplified by the Minneapolis-based Institute of Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) that produced no less than three rather detailed posts of the Civil society output as blog posts from 17-19 April and the main conference. The posts were produced by two of the staff that were here in Accra from Geneva and the US.

Africa (Bloggers) Disunited?

The blogging that was done by a few Western NGOs that were present at UNCTAD XII were so good that they put into shame the quasi non-existent blog entries by African civil society. Regrettably, parts of the African contingent spent quite a bit of time complaining *not* about the wireless so much as the mostly -English output of the civil society aspect of the conference. This was expressed in list-serves that were purposefully set up to facilitate communication among us, and face-to-face encounters. It was clearly a challenge that needs to be confronted.

Even more challenging however, was the extent of blogging by Africans. After the end of the conference, I surfed the blogosphere for inputs by Africans on UNCTAD XII. The owner of Africanloft.com, a popular social networking-cum-blogging site, emailed me to say that he was there at UNCTAD XII, and hinted that he would write a more comprehensive post after the conference. I only got his mail when I sent him two posts for upload, while simultaneously decrying the state of non-blogging by those who wrote about the African Union summit in June last year – also right here in Accra. Why were these same bloggers—even if they were unable to make it to Accra—not blogging about the issues discussed? Or was it a case of conference-fatigue by African bloggers?

I daresay my European and Western counterparts might have also suffered from conference-fatigue, hence their departure even before the closing of the conference—but still they stayed to write reports, send emails, and blog.

It seems to me that there remains a lot of work that needs to be done insofar as blogging about conferences are concerned. In 2001, when I also had the privilege of attending the UN Conference on Least Developed Countries in Brussels, Belgium, I knew nothing about blogging—even if it was not so hot in Europe at the time – but I regret not having captured much of the conference electronically. In 2005 at the World Summit on Information Society, I produced almost a tome of sometimes-useless banter about Tunis and its people, as well as on the conference itself on my blog about Ghana.

It has almost been three years, and the information society has progressed and advanced to degrees we never thought possible. With wireless, people can even send emails and write quick reports from the washroom! That is how ridiculously advantageous the society has become.

All that said, there remain serious challenges, which include the extent to which apathy of bloggers contribute—or not—to the development of a more pluralistic information society. The West can afford to be apathetic, because of the many advances they have undergone; we in the developing world have less to be complacent about. To date, blogging remains one of the most democratising practices around for the Global South. If we as developing countries fail to maximise how it can help us foster a better society, then we might have gone wireless alright, but forever-sleepless in the search to make not just the information society, but society in general better for us all.

twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com / ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com

The Unbearable Lightness of Blogging

2008-02-22T09:30:00.001-08:00

Oh the tomes! The tomes I have written in my head, and in my heart. Not to forget on paper, as well!;-)

Regrettably, the proverbial refrain of work has hit -- truly, madly, and deeply. And rather intensely.

As such, blogging has been light, and promises to be for the next w eek or so. Please bear with me.

I am still around!

Enjoy the weekend,

Keep safe. Keep cool.

Microsoft-Yahoo: It Doesn’t Get Any More Epic than This

2008-02-15T02:01:00.000-08:00

Like the Ghana-Nigeria game last week Sunday, it does not get any more epic than this—and I am not talking about today’s final.

Computer-giant Microsoft has gone and done it again: it’s gone and made a proposal to acquire yet-another enterprise. This new catch is nothing less than the search engine “Yahoo”—and it wants to acquire it for $44.6bn. It might be too early to speculate on the modalities of this acquisition, but what is clear is that this latest move to take over YAHOO is a way of stymieing the competition that Google offers.

At least that is the rumour going round. You have got to give it to the information society: its 24/7 access to information has made pundits of all of us. Little wonder therefore that the degree of speculation on Microsoft’s motive has been as rife. In the same vein, Microsoft’s move might come as little surprise given Yahoo’s reported falling profits. Reports from the financial media indicate Yahoo’s been approached before, with the latest being in February 2007. The Board of Directors at Yahoo would reject it.

Microsoft Bad Boy to Cash in on Yahoo in Freefall?
The situation at Yahoo in 2008 is a different matter altogether. With impending job cuts and profits that are predicted to only materialise in 2009, prospects of a boom for Yahoo are not going to happen any time soon. You can imagine that this has made Yahoo rather jittery. Question is: jittery enough to sell its soul to the devil?

Make no mistake: Microsoft has delusions of grandeur that are so big it’s not funny. The European Commission had been behind the company’s tail since 1999, on account of Microsoft’s decision to force Internet Explorer browser on users, by bundling it with operating systems. Small wonder browsers like Netscape—as I reported last two weeks—have bitten the dust. Norwegian browser Opera had also made similar complaints to Brussels, home of the EU’s executive arm, and the EC lawyers have followed suit by slapping heavy fines on Microsoft. According to a press release on the Commission’s website of March 2004, “heavy” turned out to be a €497 million fine against Microsoft for “abusing its market power in the EU”. This, somehow, has not seemed to deter it.

Microsoft’s Got a Reason
Microsoft sees a merger with Yahoo as a great way of taking over not just search engines (Google accounted for 56.3% of all Web searches in December, compared with a combined 31.5% for Microsoft and Yahoo) , but online advertising, which Google is reported to have handled brilliantly through its AdSense service. Should the deal go through, Microsoft will inevitably make even more money, and seek to compete directly with Google. For some strange reason, Yahoo had not cottoned onto this. It would prove to be its undoing, setting the stage for this explosive development that has left many technology insiders with baited breath.

There is no question that search-engine Giant is cognisant of the developments, for it has made both public and private offers to both castigate the decision (on the grounds of being a threat to competition and stretching it to the point where it states this bid merits scrutiny by worldwide policy-makers), and conciliate Yahoo, by offering to partner it. Yahoo executives have bought time by coming out to say that nothing about the Microsoft merger is set in stone.

Google’s Offer Yahoo Cannot Refuse
Although it’s not great news for Yahoo, insiders predict that Yahoo being subsumed under Google—for all the mixed signals it might give off as conceding to Google its superiority in the search-engine world—would be far less harmful than under Microsoft.

The idea that falling for Microsoft represents the quintessence of the Faustian pact cannot be any clearer when you read reports from users using the Yahoo-owned Flickr photo-sharing site writing in groups created on that service messages to Microsoft stating: “Keep your evil grubby hands off our Flickr.” Reports even indicate that users are threatening to dump Flickr if the merger is approved.

What might probably go against Microsoft is CNET News.com report that a federal district court in Washington, in 2001, ruled that the company had consistently violated the law “by stifling the threat to its monopoly position posed by Netscape, which popularized the Web browser.” The article maintains a suit was brought by the Clinton administration, but settled by the Bush one. The outcome, simply put, is that a federal court and a three-member team of technical experts monitor Microsoft’s behaviour.

It goes without saying that this team will be seriously scrutinising this bid, for that Microsoft is being monitored suggests the manifestation of its delusions have been all-to-real for the past six years.

For the rest of us as users, will it be the grass that suffers as two elephants (Google and Microsoft) battle it out (and note: I’m still not talking about the final game of CAN2008!)? After all, which Ghanaian is unaware of a Yahoo email account (whether Yahoo.com/yahoo.co.uk is moot); Yahoo Messenger and Yahoo groups? All of these unique add-ons/services have become part of the daily lingo that is part of the information society many of us in the developing countries have come to (sometimes) love and accept. Now, in the event of a Microsoft-Yahoo merger, what will happen to these services?

At the time of writing, Google is offering to bail out Yahoo, whilst simultaneously discouraging it from going into the claws of Microsoft. A partnership between the two has been proposed, whereby Yahoo would outsource its search and advertising functions to Google, so that it could focus on its comparative advantages, which include mobile applications, social networking and content sharing. If this formula were to go ahead, the company would keep its independence.

Battle not Over
With prospects of Microsoft dominance in both the software and internet world, we are going to see many actors—like Google and the European Commission—that would be quick to avert this hostile takeover. Google, because of the threat it would represent in the search engine world—and less email (remember it was only in 2007 that Yahoo’s mail moved from 1GB to unlimited, when Google, since 2004, had been unlimited!) – and the EC, because it’s watching Microsoft like a hawk.

As the web becomes a space where big scrambles are played out, we are certainly going to see more of these virtual mergers and acquisitions. If there was anytime a “Big Brother” was watching, it is now—and it’s on Microsoft.

Showcasing Ghana 2008 with ICT (2)

2008-02-15T01:55:00.000-08:00

So, you are keen to show Ghana off to the world—especially after that resounding trounce by the Black Stars, of Morocco. Even if we are a week away from the finals of the 26th edition of CAN 2008, it is still never too late to do one’s bit for Mother Ghana.

Camera Never Lies
Your average digital camera of between 4-5 mega-pixels can take a close-up picture of even your television set. Maybe you were not at the stadium, but you would like to be original? Grab your camera, focus it on the TV set, and capture (replays of) the image of the symmetrical Essien-Muntari delivery for posterity.

You can toe the line, if you are armed with your camera phone—but do bear in mind that unless you are holding a NOKIA N95, which already comes equipped with 5 megapixels (MP) your average camera phone will range from VGA--(640X480) to 2.0MP—enabled film quality. However, it will be a little less for wear—for the quality is never going to be tantamount to a dedicated digital camera.

After you have captured that picture, you might want to consider creating a video capture. Your average digital camera (be it SAMSUNG, CANON, KODAK or less well-known brands) will be equipped with video, but your mobile phone is a different kettle of fish altogether. Whether the capacity is unlimited or not, its ability to record clips depends – yet again -- on the capacity of your SD card. I found out very recently that the ever-popular MOTOROLA RAZR V3 flip-phone does not accommodate this type of card, going to confirm the suspicion that the aesthetics of a phone in no way determines its quality.

Once you’ve taken a video clip, you have to upload the picture somewhere. You can chose to store it on your computer or your laptop (if you have one). What you could also do is upload it onto the Internet. Question is where to?

Gee, this mail is good!
First of all, Google’s PICASA is a great place to start. By going to picasaweb.google.com/m/ on your phone, you will be asked to input your email and password. It’s preferable that you have a google mail, or GMAIL, account. Gmail, to be frank, is all the rage these days. For the fact that you can check any of your emails (yahoo is the only one that remains problematic being checked in gmail) through the service, and have unlimited and ever-expanding space (right now, it’s 63.4 GB and counting!) makes it a boon to both the luddites and tech-savvy people who might be both awed and impressed by the extent of this technology.

For instance, I have the priviledge of being able to check my work email through GMAIL—and respond to those mails accordingly. Excuses of not having received emails are (regrettably!) a thing of the past—as most people are cottoning onto how the service works. That my boss has now asked for assistance on the setting up of GMAIL has personally reminded me my bag of excuses around emails never being received have comprehensively bitten the dust!

In all seriousness, with your gmail account, you can access picasa on the web, and begin your uploading of those beautiful pictures of re-plays by our national team.

Secondly, FLICKR.com—a photo-sharing site—is also another great place to go. By clicking on http://www.flickr.com/tools/mobile/ , you can read up more about how to upload from your mobile phone. It might interest you to know that the top 5 camera phones uploading on that mobile site are: NOKIA N95; Apple I-Phone; Nokia N73; Sony Ericsson K800i and W810i. Incidentally, this is not a Google product--prepare to have your YAHOO email accounts ready for use on this site!

In order to avoid wasting more chances than striker Asamoah-Gyan in the Namibia-Ghana game last week, it might be a good idea to consider creating an online site where your thoughts can be recorded in reverse chronological order—or a blog.

Ready to Hit the Blogosphere?
For the past five years, blogs have also been the latest wrinkle, with one statistic claiming that in early 2007, bloggers would hit the 100 million point. You can imagine that if most Westerners are experimenting with blogs, then a fraction of that number will be by non-Western once, including African ones. This should not discourage you in setting up your own blog. A five-minute process, you can set up one on TYPEPAD.com; WORDPRESS.com and BLOGGER.com. The latter is one of the more popular platforms, and, you can probably guess, owned by Google.

Given that periods likes these turn the average citizen into an armchair strategist and well-experienced coach, why not take the opportunity to showcase some of your analysis and technical skills by writing and maintaining a blog—today!

Connecting Which People?
Nokia says that it’s done a survey, in which more than 50% of respondents in India, Pakistan and nearly 30% in Vietnam have indicated that they share, or would share, their mobile phone with family or friends. I don’t see Africa there, yet Nokia is keen to sell these to so-called emerging markets. Maybe Nigeria might get a look-in. Even so, no-one asked me whether I felt that would infringe my privacy. Whether it’s a cooked survey of the middle class within these countries or not, it can be argued that Nokia is living up to its slogan of connecting people by launching two new mobile phones—the Nokia 2600 and Nokia 1209.

Both phones are designed to be shared by five people, and both handsets would come with multiple phone books (one per person) and a cost-tracker, which would enable one see how much they have spent on calls.

The article from which I found this information claims this is an indication of “how in tune Nokia is with emerging markets.” I am not so convinced. What I do believe, though, is that there might be some value about phone-sharing, in the sense that an increasing number of families are buying mobile phones for the entire family—and not just the household. It’s probably about economics and convenience. The practicalities inherent in phone sharing may be challenging – ensuring that everyone gets to use the phone, for example – but, undoubtedly, we are led to believe that this is the way.

There will be Bluetooth
The new Nokia 2600 comes with a VGA camera (640X480), MP3 Player and FM radio, and will retail for €65.00, or around GHC80.00. The Nokia 1209, conversely, will go for €35.00. Just so that the phone-sharing makes sense, Nokia will most definitely be including nothing less than…Bluetooth.

It is interesting to note that despite the growing dominance of Bluetooth technology, there appears not to be any infra-red—unlike even some of the latest NOKIAs. Can we say that this means it’s dying a certain death?

Showcasing Ghana 2008 with ICT (I)

2008-02-15T01:44:00.000-08:00

I had thought that given that it has been exactly a week since Sulley Muntari saved Ghana from disgrace at the 90th minute in the Ghana-Guinea game, normalcy would set in. Then I remembered that as Leonardo di Caprio’s character as a mercenary in Blood Diamonds said to an inquisitive American journalist investigating those diamonds, TIA-- or “This is Africa”.

More specifically, “This is Ghana”, where there are variations of normalcy as far as soccer is involved, but even more so, when football comes home. It is clear that on the ICT front, given the enthusiasm surrounding CAN2008 and the matches, there will continue to be more text messaging than ever.

Last Friday when I was leaving the office for home, I overheard a colleague exclaim to another that “I’ll call you when [Ghana] wins”, adding shortly after that “as for that, I can spare my credits!” Undoubtedly, the camaraderie created by the soccer fiesta is a magnificent reminder of how you most definitely do not need NOKIA to connect people via ICT (tools)!

Whilst we are making a lot of noise about showcasing Ghana, might we turn to some of existing sites out there helping to do just that.

Everywhere You Go
It’s true—it’s everywhere you go; they’ve even got a yellow un-flyable plane at the Tetteh-Quarshie interchange – but they are there. They also happen to be headline sponsors of Ghana’s national team--the Black Stars. Not all is necessarily bad on the MTN front, however. On your mobile phone—through GPRS—you can visit the company’s website mtnfootball.com/mobile. There, you can see summary of results of the latest game, including the score line, and a commentary of how the game went as it was being played.

The London-based Guardian website’s football page on football.guardian.co.uk is also a place to check. I don’t know which news site started the ball-by-ball commentary first, but I re-call that in the 2006 World Cup, those monitoring the Ghanaian games for the Guardian site brought a whole different feel to their game. Coverage of The Cup of African Nations is no exception—for the website, considered one of the most popular online newspapers around, is sure to thrill. You can also get in on your mobile by going to football.guardian.co.uk/pda.

Last June, I opted to leave the oft-inanity of Ghanaian radio to listen more to the BBC World Service. I knew I was right in doing so—as are many BBC listeners, who know they are getting unparalleled quality news and commentary when they listen to news or sport. Just to highlight: a colleague, disappointed by the lack of running commentary for GTV’s coverage of the Ghana-Guinea game last Sunday, decided he’d stick with the station and listen to the commentary from no other than the BBC World Service’s station on 101.3FM.

All that said, accessing CAN2008 score lines and reading up about the tournament on your mobile may prove to be a bit more challenging for your mobile. This is because whereas you can access BBC’s African football website on an easy-to-remember URL like bbc.co.uk/africanfootball, on your mobile, it’s no walk in the park; it’s more like a run through badly-cut grass: news.bbc.co.uk/mobile/bbc_sport/football/internationals/! Once you get there, simply click on “Africa Cup of Nations 2008”, and get access to the best of BBC Sport.

Finally, Ghana almost passes the online test with the official Ghanacan2008.com website. Small trick, however, is that you need to access that site via this URL: ghanacan2008.com/fixtures.php. The site is not designed specifically to accommodate mobile phones, hence the need to add the “PHP” extension, which is optimal for computer-based (HTML) web browsers. If you’re looking for news, pictures, and more, you are sure to find it here. Small caveat on the pictures is that the output will be optimized if your phone has a 640X480 or VGA screen, or higher.

Government is Coming Home!
Forget the fact that the ever-popular social networking tool that is FACEBOOK is all the rage these days. Be afraid; be very afraid -- for government is coming closer to home than you might ever want it to. Over-the-moon by the opportunities inherent in the so-called Web 2.0 world that we live in now, where social networking is globalised, and where everyone can connect together in some sort of digital exuberance, Western governments are leaving behind e-government, and replacing it with Web 2.0.

The managing director and COO of Government Insights that came out with a report about this trend says: “Gov 2.0 will replace e-gov as governments seek to gain additional value from citizen interaction and business transactions.” Inevitably, the cue here is the interactivity enshrined in the Web 2.0, which governments are keen to exploit. I specifically use “exploit”, because there’s a double-edged sword inherent within this trend. To me as a private individual, it’s screaming “where’s my privacy!.” I can expect, however, that those seeking to implement it are thinking that it will foster “greater participation and dialogue with citizens.”

What I can personally tell you about the experience with Facebook is that the more Web 2.0 applications are added to the system, the more it has put me off visiting—never mind using Facebook! Being bombarded by “Funwalls” and messages sent to “all friends” and being asked to send imaginary drinks to friends no longer becomes a boon to the pretenders of tech-“savviness”! I can very well imagine government departments adding so many applications to their websites to “enhance dialogue with citizens” they end up eating their own tail, and realizing that Web 2.0 just might be the future—but not for governments.

When Banking on IT Goes Wrong

2008-02-15T01:40:00.000-08:00

Last two weeks, I was a poster-child for disappointment and frustration towards that payment system, which most of us have become used to; and that which we like to call the ATM, or Automated Teller Machine system. In short, the system failed me – much to my chagrin – and at a crucial time when I needed it most.

It all started with a trip downtown into Accra with the family, which called for a stop by the ATM of my bank. When I got the error message from the first ATM, I shrugged it off, feeling it was one of those things: maybe the festive period had spawned a huge number of withdrawals and the system had heated up. My mind began to change when I went to the second ATM some 10 minutes away—still unable to withdraw.

It was with the third ATM somewhere in town when the frustration begun to build. Seeing frustrated customers shaking their heads and muttering not-so-sweet nothings to themselves compounded the arrival at a decision that something was awry with the ATMs. The straw on the camel’s back was at Airport Shell, when the money pretended to be coming, only for the ATM to issue me a slip of paper, claiming I had “exceeded the daily limit”! This took the biscuit, and prompted me to get to my phone to my bank. They explained engineers were working on the system, and I wondered why they didn’t have the courtesy to have a message displayed at the ATMs that works were in, say, progress.

Far beyond the lack of customer service Ghanaians are wont to rightly complain about, this experience underscored—yet again—the extent to which we have thrown caution of IT and ICT tools to the wind, fully embracing such-systems – with all their imperfections – as if our life depended on it, all the time forgetting that, like this experience, it needs must let us down.

I believe that it will let us down because it is a system created and maintained by human beings. Consequently, the margin of error of its perfection will be greater on some days. This is no mere philosophical pondering but, in my view, a reminder of the importance of complementing old practices – such as keeping money on oneself – with new ones, where we rely on the banks to take care of our money for us. The day the money “refuses”—or fails—to come out is the day we find ourselves as poster children of ridicule. We can certainly avoid it!

Where’s that Mobile?
One thing we certainly cannot avoid is the usage of our phones this year. As it has become an indispensable tool, so has the need to further maximise the functions on it.

This week, we turn to the generation of phones that started using USB connections. Although as far back as 2003/2004, mobile phones, like NOKIA, could be connected to the computer, the cable used was one that was specific to NOKIA. USB connection was introduced to the computer around 1997, but it would be from 2003, early 2004 that they would begin to be commonplace on mobile devices, like NOKIA and MOTOROLA.

Even today that many phones are USB-compatible, few people are chosing to use their mobile devices…as mass storage devices. Quite a number of my colleagues, for example, both own USB flash disk and a mobile phone—but none take the opportunity to exploit the mass storage capability that the phones offer. There are two main reasons for this.

First of all, if the phone has, say, 20 MB space, there is evidently little incentive to use it as a mass storage device. Arm your phone with a memory card, and you might contemplate it. I suspect however that this activity exercises few people’s minds when they’re going to bed!

Secondly, even if you do have, say, 1 GB space on your phone, which is still not de rigeur for many mobile phones, the contemplation of it as a storage device when you have your USB flash disk purposefully for storing data will not be a visceral act.

In my view, these are the two predominant reasons why the trend towards storing important data on your mobile phone has not become the norm. With time, however, this trend will probably not catch on—except for those who consider themselves tech-savvy, and make that extra effort to maximise and exploit that humble of devices.

Smile, you’re on candid camera
Whether you’re a commuter, driver, or passenger, consider yourself a walking reference if you have a camera phone. Even if you are not used to taking pictures with your phone, the very fact that there is one at all on your phone gives you sufficient power to be able to make real impacts and contributions.

Back in 2003 when camera phones were either on high-end phones or non-existent, a close relative of mine who was involved in a serious car accident, which saw the-said relative end up with broken feet, was able to capture the scene of the accident—with a standard digital camera, that had video recording. The video would go to prove the guilt of the driver that slammed into the car from the opposite direction, because the son who was a passenger had the presence of mind to capture the scale of the accident and damage caused before anyone – witnesses or otherwise -- could unwittingly tamper with the evidence.

It would be ridiculous to think that one would carry a camera to capture accidents, but it’s clear from this very real and near-fatal accident that the digital camera was as critical a witness as the two relatives involved in the accident!

More recently, the President’s accident in November 2007 was a moot case, for witnesses on the scene were able to take pictures almost-instantaneously. Some claim they even took video coverage on their mobile phones. As I was in the vicinity leaving a work-related assignment, I arrived on the scene some twenty minutes after the incident. Still, armed with my standard camera, I was able to capture quite a few memorable shots, which I uploaded on my blog. Within two days, the number of people who had typed “kufuor and accident” and happened on my blog surpassed 50.

Whatever the case, it is clear that whoever you are, and wherever you may find yourelf, the phone has become an accessory to capturing a little piece of history that can assist you in an accident, or simply bring a joy to your face—something much needed this New Year!

Bye-Bye Netscape
It was sad news early this year, when reports came in that internet browser, Netscape, is dying a slow death, on account of the new business focus by its parent, America Online (AOL). The new focus by AOL is for the company to be more ad-supported, and, apparently, there is no room for Netscape within this new focus. Furthermore, the success of the Mozilla Foundation, which pioneered the successful FIREFOX browser, will continue to be subsidised by AOL at the expense of Netscape. The long and short of it all is that AOL is pulling the plug on Netscape, preferring for people to use FIREFOX. All that said, the portal netscape.com will still be available for those who hark after the good old times of when Netscape ruled before Internet Explorer came to steal its thunder.

Merry Methods to the Mobile Madness

2008-01-23T07:25:00.002-08:00

With Christmas some nine days away, and precious little inspiration for a present, Ghanaians might be prompted to go for a mobile device. With all manner of shapes, sizes and sorts available, you cannot go wrong in bringing a smile to your loved one’s face. Here are some humble suggestions to guide you on what’s out there.

There are smartphones, which are considered “voice-centric mobile devices”, and are very portable. It does not necessarily have to have touch-screen functionality; its ability to handle corporate email, connect to the internet—just to name but two—are sufficient. Of the most popular ones, BlackBerrys and TREO are to-die-for; they have full QWERTY keypads. You can also find some that are slimmer, less bulky, and more of a phone. These have more letters and symbols per key; HP’s iPAQ is one such phone.

Generally, smartphones have wide-area connectivity, such as GSM and GPRS/EDGE or 3G/HSDPA capability. Smartphone pundits like to refer to the BlackBerry for its landscape-mode screen and QWERTY keypad; its ability to connect to the internet makes it all the more attractive. However, uneasy lies the crown for BlackBerry, for there are, newer pretenders to its throne; these include newer devices, such as HTC’s S710, which offers a slide-out QWERTY keypad. Off late, smartphones come packed with integrated Wi-Fi, allowing them to connect to a landline via Wi-Fi in the office, whilst using a mobile network elsewhere.

Secondly, there are the regular mobile devices, provided by the SAMSUNGS, NOKIAs, and MOTOROLAs (to name but three popular brands). These are coming packed with a number of integrated applications, such as MP3 players that are Windows Media Player-compatible, such as the MOTOROLA Z6. If you are just into sending text messages and making voice calls, you cannot go wrong with any of these. Buying a phone that comes with a camera and/or video is de rigueur these days, but if you rarely use the camera, you might want to cut down costs and go for one that just takes pictures—and cut out the video, as rarely do these two applications work optimally side-by-side.

In looking for a phone, you might also want to consider one that has “Bluetooth” connectivity. This is a low-power; short-range technology that supports lower data transfer rates (721 Kbps for Bluetooth 1.2 and 2.1 Mbps for Bluetooth 2.0+EDR) over shorter distances. Like the so-called “camera phone”, most phones come Blue-tooth ready. If you ever wondered where Infra-red went, it was pretty much killed by Bluetooth.

With mobile providers of ONETOUCH, MTN and TIGO providing GPRS capabilities, you could be forgiven for thinking that Ghanaians are capitalising on them. My far-from-scientific survey indicates that unlike my Western counterparts, Ghanaians rarely patronise these services, feeling they will be ripped off their units even more than they already are! A humble voice of experience can safely say that the prices are relatively cheap – if you just need to check your mail, and browse the odd BBC news story.

If you thought patronage of GPRS services in Ghana is low, you haven’t heard the latest from the New York Times that claims that mobile web, and 3G networks in particular, are flops. The article maintains that data accounts for only 12 percent of revenue for mobile phone operators; another survey indicated that only 13 percent mobile phone users use their phone to browse the Web more than once a month.

Three main points are highlighted for this failure: displays, which are too small to read effectively; difficult user-input, due to lack of a keyboard; and the billing method by most operators that allow you to pay per byte.

The GPRs-optimists among us would say that all that may be true—except when you are using a better and more efficient phone, like the Nokia E90 smartphone, which screen is sufficiently big to enable a satisfying web-browsing experience. Even the ever-popular-in-Ghana RAZR models of Motorola, like the L7i and flip-phone V3, enable you browse seamlessly without having to fork out twice a salary.

Has Mobile Video Been Killed by BlackStar?
A Ghanaweb report of 16 July 2007 indicated that ONETOUCH would be providing its subscribers television on their mobile phone. According to the mobile provider’s website, “this service which will be provided by Black Star TV will be commercialised in October, 2007 and will be available only on the Onetouch network”. Two lengthy calls to ONETOUCH’s hotline indicated that the service will be rolled out as soon as it’s ready.

Mobile Video Recording Soon
While we are keeping our fingers crossed for that, we can probably place faith in a Reuters report that says that video recording our humble mobile phones are set to reach “high-definition quality in a few years.”

Predicted by an executive from industry leader Nokia to be a reality “in a couple of years”, it was also predicted that this development would be associated with profits as better quality could “boost sales of pricey multimedia phones…” Beyond the NOKIA N95 being able to record such high-quality video, prospects for this latest technological convergence might fall flat, considering the acknowledgment that “increasing the video quality affects the quality of the still camera.”

Nokia—Still Connecting People?
With predictions that it will be embedded in upcoming Nokia S60 3rd edition devices, you might need to go beyond the Greek around the models to accept that if you don’t own a high-end Nokia phone, you will not be getting Nokia’s Internet radio anytime soon. This would be a pity, for reports say that it makes “music discovery effortless”, in the sense that the whole experience is made seamless (easy browsing; hourly updates of the top ten most popular internet radio stations; creating a list of “Favourites”).

Ready for download from the following mobile phones—Nokia N82; N91; N95; N95 8GB—the rest of us – using neither Nokia nor such high-end ones—will have to accept something less: our humble earphones connected to our radio-enabled mobiles!

Where’s That Payphone?
USA-based AT&T has announced that come 2008, it will nip the provision of payphones fairly and squarely in the bud. This comes in the wake of a steady decline of payphones from about 2.6 million phones inn 1998 to an estimated 1 million phones today. One wonders whether they might feel tempted to introduce a talk tax on mobile phone users as a result!

When Your Phone Comes Too Close to Call

2008-01-23T07:14:00.000-08:00

There is a scene in TV Africa’s running of the hit show Prison Break when the son of protagonist Lincoln Burrows (awaiting a death sentence within days) gets through to the secret-service-hunted-lawyers trying to stop his father’s sentence—only to have the two murderous secret service personnel (who had, hours earlier, killed his stepfather and mother) locate him within moments of his call. We see that this was not the first time they had located the son the moment he picked his call. You might think this is a rather science fiction scene. You’d be wrong—for this is very science fact! Welcome to the world of Global Positioning System (GPS)-enabled phones!

To most of us in the developing world, GPS might appear to be a bit fancy. However, countries like the US have been enjoying it since 1999, when the US’s Federal Communications Commission pushed through an act requiring all handsets to incorporate the technology. Known as the so-called E911 system, it enables emergency services accurately locate and pinpoint location of a mobile phone caller.

With predictions that GPS-enabled phones will quadruple by 2011, small wonder it has caught the attention of the American public. While we here in Ghana struggle for phone calls that can get through at all, most Americans have begun to place premium on GPS-capability—right there with GPRS (mobile internet)/wap capabilities, and multimedia.

With the issue of “Discgate” still lingering in the minds of people, you could have been forgiven for thinking that the fallout of the loss of 25 million people’s data would serve as reminders of the need for privacy; instead it seems to be the last thing on people’s minds.

Take last week, when Information Week reported that American university students from Montclair State University will require its students to buy and carry special cell phones equipped with GPS. If you thought that this meant that privacy had been jettisoned, here’s one for keeps: in Japan, defence ministry officials are being required to carry GPS-enabled phones so they can be located at all times. The rationale behind this is that if these officials can be located during the weekends and at all times, this will help reduce potentially-corruptible behaviour.

If one were tempted to think that this is an information society going mad, let’s just say that it less that – and more a sign of things to come!

Big Brother Watching?
Google has released a beta version of Google Maps for your mobile phone, which means that you can be located through triangulation of your cellular network. In English, it means you be located, through Google Maps, without having to lug round a GPS-enabled phone; all you need is a GPRS-enabled phone (which most phones in Ghana are). If you think it’s too high-tech, you might be spooked to know that my mobile provider (that’s always in touch) enabled me download it on my mobile through its regular GPRS. While Google Maps was not able to establish my specific location, I could clearly see “Accra”, “Nsawam”; “Swedru”; “Larteh” and “Tema”.

With this free application, which can be downloaded from Google’s mobile page (http://m.google.com), the user’s location is seen as a blue pulsating dot. If the application is unsure of the location, it will display a paler blue circle. Unlike traditional GPS, this one can be used indoors—and drains your battery less.

Mobiles and Wireless Take Centre Stage
The wireless and mobile phone community won out last week when -- after a month-long diplomatic meeting in Geneva that was attended by delegates from observer companies, including AT&T, Boeing, Intel and Sharp, -- delegates from 164 countries agreed to earmark what silicon.com calls “new sections of the finite spectrum for mobile phones and other wireless products.”

Once this new treaty comes into force, mobile phone users will experience clearer connections and faster downloads of music, movies and other data in what is known as 3G—or future generations of handheld devices. If you ever wondered, “3G” is a term coined by the UN agency in charge of telecommunications—the International Telecommunications Union (ITU)—to define mobile communications technology. Associated with 3G are increased bandwidth, and the ability to work over wireless air interfaces.

We must all now be aware of that familiar mobile phone interruption when we’re listening to the radio or watching television. What this new treaty seeks to do is to allow mobile technology use higher high-quality frequencies—without the television of television services or users of radio waves, including airlines, meteorologists and the military.

Who’s the Sleekest of Them All?
About.com has an interesting site, where you can review the top latest 20 mobile phones. They include Motorola, ZTE; Apple; Sanyo and Nokia. The prize, however, goes to Samsung, which features no less than nine new phones—quite a number of which look suspiciously like re-hashed Motorola RAZR’s. This site is certainly a boon to the mobile phone fanatic: http://cellphones.about.com/library/bl_ss_lat1.htm

Alternatively, you can check out a UK-based “Phones Review” site, where, as far back as May, they listed “Ultimate Top Ten Mobiles of 2007”! You won’t be surprised to find a Motorola; Samsung; and LG in there: http://www.phonesreview.co.uk/2007/05/13/phones-review-ultimate-top-10-mobiles-2007

Emmanuel is Ag. President of Ghanaian Association of Journalists in ICT (GHAJICT). Kindly check out: http://twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com for tips, articles, and developments on ICT. Please direct all comments and/or correspondence to ekbensah AT gmail.com

Go Black Stars!

2008-01-20T05:15:00.001-08:00

Currently waiting 2
get some typically
ghanaian sunday
food of fufu as
takeaway. Am @
eden tree-an
eaterie that has
not been spared
excitement of
opening of Cup of
African Nations,
which begins @
5pm gmt. Ghana
vs. GUINEA! May
the best man win!

Merry christmas to u all!

2007-12-20T10:53:00.001-08:00

Just being back
from institutional
retreat in elmina
beach resort,
central region of
ghana, i seriously
doubt that as i
happily surf the
'net on my
motorola z6, i can
provide coherent
blog entries!
While i allow
self-indulgence
2wards christmas
festivities, allow
me 2 wish all u
regular n non-
regular readers a
stupendous
christmas period,
full of peace n
love...

New Jersey College Students MANDATED to Use GPS-Enabled Phones

2007-12-04T05:00:00.001-08:00

From: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jeuZrz90ffaPy2tLHQMemiFFSN2wD8TA5J1O0

“Montclair is one of the first schools in the U.S. to use GPS tracking devices, which along with other security technology are increasingly being adopted on campuses in the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre last spring.”

N.J. College Requires GOP Cell Phones

By CHRIS NEWMARKER – 17 hours ago

MONTCLAIR, N.J. (AP) — It was after 1 a.m. on a Sunday when college freshman Amanda Phillips arrived at the train station. She was nervous about walking alone in the dark to her dorm at Montclair State University.

So Phillips activated a GPS tracking device on her school-issued cell phone that would instantly alert campus police to her whereabouts if she didn't turn it off in 20 minutes. After a five-minute walk, she safely reached her dorm room, locked the door behind her and turned off the timer.

"I think this is a great idea. It makes me feel a lot safer. And it's not even that expensive," said Phillips, an 18-year-old from Delaware.

Had she not turned the device off, an alarm would have sounded at the campus police station, and a computer screen would have displayed a dot with her location, along with her photo and other personal details.

Montclair is one of the first schools in the U.S. to use GPS tracking devices, which along with other security technology are increasingly being adopted on campuses in the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre last spring.

Students can use the timer, or, in an emergency, activate the GPS technology to instantly alert police.

"Maybe they're hiding and are hurt. Maybe they wouldn't want to talk because they're hiding behind a desk and the gunman's in the room. They'd have a better chance of being located," said campus police Sgt. Paul Giardino.

So far, not many students are using the feature. The university, which has 13,000 undergraduates, said the timers get turned on only about five to 10 times a week.

In the little more than a year that the system has been fully operational, the alarms have gone off only about once per month, and it was a false alarm every time, usually because someone forgot to turn off a timer.

Giardino said the false alarms aren't nuisances — they are training opportunities for the 32-member police force. "I can get my guys to get out and learn how to handle these," he said.

Two years ago, well before Virginia Tech, Montclair State made the cell phones mandatory for all first-year students living in dorms at the largely commuter school in suburban New York City. Now, all new full-time undergraduates — whether they live on campus or off — are required to buy them. About 6,000 students have them now.

Karen Pennington, vice president for campus life, said she and others on campus wanted to use the phones for instruction — letting professors take instant polls in class, for instance — and for safety as well.

While students praise the safety features, some grumble that the phones are mandatory and that they must be bought through the school for $210 per semester, on top of tuition and fees totaling more than $7,600 a year.

The phones come with free, unlimited text messaging, the capability to read campus e-mail, free calls after 7 p.m. and free calls to other Sprint phones, but only 50 minutes per month of anytime talking. Students must pay extra to add minutes. And though students pay by the semester, the phones work year-round.

The university contracted with the New York-based upstart Rave Wireless for the safety technology and Sprint for the cell phone service. Montclair State said it is not making money on the deal. It said the total cost is around $2 million per year — almost exactly what the school collects from students to fund it.

Sprint added cell towers so that virtually every inch of the campus gets service.

Raju Rishi, co-founder of Rave, said Montclair State was the first to use the safety feature, called Rave Guardian. A half-dozen other schools, including nearby Fairleigh Dickinson University and the University of North Carolina, now use similar systems, Rishi said.

Rishi said campus police are not monitoring the movements of students who don't turn on the GPS feature. "There's no Big Brother," Rishi said. "You need a subpoena to locate somebody against their will."

Security on Campus, a King of Prussia, Pa.-based advocacy group, gave Montclair State an award for the innovation. The group's vice president, Catherine Bath, said the technology will probably become more widespread.

"When I'm out walking my dog at night, I would love to have one of these," she said.

Associated Press Writer Geoff Mulvihill in Mount Laurel contributed to this article.

Interesting website dedicated to mobile phones

2007-12-04T02:00:00.001-08:00

http://mobilementalism.com/

The Information Society and Threats Thereof

2007-12-04T01:15:00.000-08:00

By E.K.Bensah II

To the Guardian newspaper, it is “Discgate”. To the rest of us, it is the loss of data of 25 million people—which included the name and date of every child; along with parent’s national insurance numbers and bank details— by the UK’s HM Revenue early last week, which is a serious wake-up call to aficionados of the information society who have come to believe that moving to an increasingly IT-related world is the way forward.

That the data was not encrypted and that a junior clerk is alleged to have botched his work brings into sharp relief two things: the need to fine-tune measures to protect important data, and a sensitisation of staff working with IT to the pitfalls inherent in the information society. Let’s face it, sacking the clerk was to be expected, but it certainly does not bring back that data of 25 million people! What it does do, in my view, is remind us about the potential perils and pitfalls inherent in an information society.

The so-called Information Society, understandably, may represent yet another nebulous concept coined by the perceived behemoth of the UN. What it is, in effect, in my view, is a global society, where ICT tools--not just computers, but mobile phones; radios and whatnot –- serve as critical roles in our "development" --irrespective of where you may be.

This means, for example, that it is a society where mobile internet is a reality; where there is an always-on internet (broadband); where it is not just accessible, but relatively affordable for all; where Internet cafes are within the environs of major cities, hang-outs, and even the country-side, where life is that much quieter; and where blogging facilitates an openness unparalleled in the facilitation of the work of the fourth estate.

Given that Ghanaians are wont to over-do things, I believe in the same manner should Ghanaians pause to reflect over their role and responsibility in an ever-evolving information society.

Whether we like it or not, the information society is here to stay –and that necessarily is not a bad thing. It means that our access to information is increased and, better still, that access is to a plethora of information. To the degree that it makes or mars us is what we must grapple with, for the rapid explosion of mobile phones – both in urban and rural areas – while a positive development, calls for important safeguards of our privacy.

Already, we have become accustomed to going everywhere with a mobile phone—when we don’t take it, most of us feel something is missing—and as we increasingly move towards a more sophisticated information society, where WAP-enabled mobile phones, PDAs, and smartphones become cheaper—and the norm, it behooves us to further pause and question not just the impact of such changes on our lives, work, and families, but how exposed it leaves us to attack by miscreants who can—and will—exploit our 24/7 access to our phones.

Without adequate regulation, we will see an information society running amuck, and where with our already-jammed and over-subscribed phone networks, personal information we input over our wap-enabled phones to access the Internet becomes cross-linked with other user’s data.

A few months ago, I accessed my Yahoo mail through my mobile phone, only to see someone else’s username, password, and email. I refreshed the page, but the person’s username and password was all I saw. Rather naively, I selected “sign in”, knowing that no-one else had been using my mobile –let alone access my Yahoo account online. In I went—to see that person’s emails. I had to reset my phone before I was able to access my own account again. I failed to report it to my provider, believing it to be a one-off thing. What if it wasn’t?

This, in my view, calls into question a need for, say, wap-enabled firewalls to prevent any personal data on our mobile phone getting out there. That one can even write a text message, and send it as an email, not only reflects how mobile phones have enhanced our convenience, but how we ought to be more responsible in how we comport ourselves online. We must all by now be familiar with the 419 emails, yet time and again, we hear stories of people having fallen foul of it. It’s all about their choice and their responsibility—or lack thereof.

Mind your data
An attempt at a rules-based information society is one of the reasons why the first-ever Internet Governance Forum took place in Greece from 30 October to 2 November 2006. It might have gone unreported in mainstream media, but it certainly was an impactful event in the sense that it set the tone for how the information society could begin to be crafted and regulated.
In the UK, they have gone one concrete step further.

Recent data from the UK’s data privacy watchdog – the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) – indicates that 4.5 million web users aged between 14 and 21 years of age are cavalier in the way they give up information on the Internet, especially when visiting social networking sites, such as the very-popular Facebook, or Rupert Murdoch-owned MySpace.

Even search engines, such as Google, are receiving complaints that information associated with web searches made under an individual’s name brings up expressions that these individuals made in their youth but, which could be detrimental to their career. To this end, the ICO has recently issued new guidance for young people using the Internet that they have made available on a website: http://www.ico.gov.uk/youngpeople.

Furthermore, in the light of the monumental blunder at HM Revenue and Customs, the British government has agreed to conduct what it calls “data security spot checks” across government departments, which is to be spearheaded by the Information Commissioner’s Office; furthermore, data breaches of the magnitude of this loss will be made a criminal offence.

According to silicom.com, a UK-based site on IT that informs the business world on enhancing its work through technology, the Information Commissioner Richard Thomas who welcomed these new powers said in a statement that by making this data breach a criminal offence, it would “serve as a strong deterrent and would send a very strong signal that it is completely unacceptable to be cavalier with people’s information.”

Much closer to home, from West African Examination Council (WAEC) results to National Service placements online, Ghanaian data is already computerized and automatically made part of the information society, with attendant qualms over what happens with the data, notwithstanding.

With the imminent introduction of the National Identification Authority and its consequent issuance of ID cards for Ghanaians, the possibility of exposure and loss of our personal details will be more real than it is now where it is hidden among a maelstrom of papers at, say, the passport office.

Our reliance on ICT and its tools may be inevitable, but might we remember to complement it with traditional methods, which are deemed more reliable—lest we end up with a Ghanaian version of “Discgate”!

Global ICTs: The Silent Development Revolution

2007-12-04T01:12:00.001-08:00

(as appeared in last Sunday's edition of Sunday World: http://www.sundayworldonline.com):

Global ICTs—The Silent Development Revolution

By E.K.Bensah II

When the American poet and musician Gil Scott-Heron wrote the poem "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised", he perhaps got it right with regard to the development of ICTs in the context of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS).

Before 2005, WSIS had assumed an unclear UN process that had little practical connection to development. Now, it is virtually impossible to talk about the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) without talking about the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

When world leaders met at the UN in 2000 to draw up the MDGs, one of the goals was to achieve universal primary education. Given that education is, in essence, a passport to one's future and opening up of possibilities for any child, UNESCO has led the way of hosting seminars on Knowledge Societies in the Context of WSIS. For UNESCO, its vision of knowledge societies is based on four principles: freedom of expression; quality education for all; universal access to information and knowledge; and respect for cultural and linguistic diversity. UNESCO is far from the only UN agency involved in the WSIS process, but its role as one of the pre-cursors of the WSIS is moot.

Despite the critical involvement of UN agencies, such as FAO and UNDP at WSIS, it is clear for many observers that the Second Phase of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) that took place from 16-18 November in the Tunisian capital, Tunis, was disappointing. It certainly was for civil society organizations (CSOs) who, after an alleged stabbing of a French journalist, were denied by the Tunisian authorities to hold a Citizens Summit on WSIS. For others, however, one of the more concrete things, to have emerged from the whole summit was the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)-sponsored One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), going for one hundred dollars.

The brainchild of the Professor Nicholas Negroponte of MIT, the lime-green laptop is made of rubber, so that when it closes, it will be sealed to protect it from environments, such as harsh environment in northern Kenya. It can be powered by a retractable crank that can be used to generate 10 minutes of power for every one minute of cranking up the machine.

Negroponte's team turned down Apple's offer to use its operating system, opting instead for a slimmer version that uses a 500MHZ processor and open source software under Linux. It is equipped with a 1GB flash RAM instead of a hard drive, a word processor, email application, and programming system.

Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called it "an impressive technical achievement", adding that "it holds the promise of major advances in economic and social development."

Pressed on why laptops in place of "proper" development, MIT argued that laptops are tools to think with. More specifically, their relatively affordable price of hundred dollars is coupled with how they can be used for work and play, drawing, writing, and mathematics.

In October this year, Uruguay bought 100,000 of the machines for schoolchildren aged six to 12, with a view to procuring a further 300,000 for every school-going child in the country by 2009.

Here in Ghana, Finance and Economic Minister Baah-Wiredu announced in the annual reading of the budget that the laptops in question will be introduced to Ghana from next year.

For many observers of the WSIS process, the laptops have constituted not only something concrete coming out of WSIS, but something that can be used to facilitate development. In the long run, WSIS has highlighted the importance of using ICTS to facilitate development, and so rural areas being able to afford to use such ICT tools is moot in getting closer to the Millenium Development Goals of halving poverty by 2015.

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has piloted studies, for example, where the use of ICT tools, such as mobile phones, has helped farmers in Senegal to obtain prices of goods.

Yoshio Utsumi, Secretary General of ITU and of the WSIS Summit, said that "the WSIS was not an end but a beginning." What the Tunis phase did was remind one about the much-talked-about Digital Divide; how to govern the internet, and how to use ICTS for development. Whilst the Digital divide—as evidenced by the chasm between those who have ready and steady access to computers and, by extension, the Internet – very much exists even within countries (such as the rate of using the internet cafes in Accra as compared to the rate in the Northern region, which is three or four times the cost), the use of ICTs for development, for example, is being facilitated by non-governmental agencies like the Accra-based GINKS, which aim to " provide information and Knowledge sharing that will facilitate capacity building for ICTs Products and services"

Other developments are also taking place. One notable one is that of a story in the Ghanaian Times of 1 April 2006, in which it was reported that Accra Girl's Secondary School has become the "first school in Africa to have an electronic learning (e-learning) center to facilitate the adoption of [ICTS] into its academic programmes." The issue of internet governance, however, is a murkier—and more technical affair that merits as much consideration and study as those issues that pre-dominate international development.

Internet Governance, concrete outcomes

The issue of internet governance has assumed similar dimensions characteristic of the North-South divide in, say, the international trading system. If at the WTO, it is the so-called QUAD (comprising Canada, the US, UK, and Japan) that have a major say surrounding the decisions made on the multilateral trading system, so it is that when it comes to the internet, the US is right at the heart of controlling how domain names, for example, are assigned.

A communiqué produced by the European Commission in late April 2006 has argued that this system of control by the US is slowly changing—and that is also thanks to the Tunis Agenda on the Information Society that came out of the WSIS Summit last November.

In the Agenda, paragraph 63, for the first time, recognises that "Countries should not be involved in decisions regarding another country's country-code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD). Their legitimate interests, as expressed and defined by each country, in diverse ways, regarding decisions affecting their ccTLDs, need to be respected, upheld and addressed via a flexible and improved framework and mechanisms ".

Put simply, this means that unlike before when countries needed the approval of the US Commerce Department before changing, say, ghanasundayworld.com to ghanasundayworld.gh, countries, exercising their sovereign right, can now go ahead and change it—ensuring that the existing non-profit ICANN (Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers) oversees the change through regional registries, such as AfriNic, which helps, as its website maintains, to " provide professional and efficient distribution of Internet number resources to the African Internet community, to support Internet technology usage and development across the continent and strengthen self Internet governance in Africa by encouraging a participative policy development" .

Even the decision to create "ghanasundayworld.gh", before Tunis, would have meant seeking assent from the US! What this old way of doing things would have meant is that if Ghana were considered not strategic enough a country, the US Department of Commerce cold turn down that domain name.

Some of these technical issues were discussed at the first-ever forum on Internet governance, which the Greek government played host to in October 2006. This year, the second Internet Governance Forum was held in Brazil, where the issues of content regulation; the duty of states to protect freedom of expression online, including the protection of children online; a set of global public policy principles—including, inter alia, an Internet Bill of Rights were discussed.

The future of WSIS

At the UN level, monitoring what WSIS will do to the access to information is a key concern. Malaysia's Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Jamaludin Jarjis, said last year that "access to information should now be regarded as a utility and basic human right." He adds that conventional development means were no longer adequate in today's economic climate, where knowledge capital was the new currency and the new, raw material."

The UN, at a Geneva meeting, in July 2006, maintained the world body should continue to play a leading role in expanding information and communication technologies to promote development. The World Summit requested that a UN group on the Information Society ought to coordinate the work of the UN system.

It bears reminding that although the WSIS process seems rather nebulous to many in the sense that linking ICTs to development seems rather tenuous, in the long run, what remains clear is that as long as the Internet and ICTS are with us, so, too, will WSIS. It is a process that remains critical to the MDGs, and like most revolutions, its legacy for posterity can only be for the betterment of society.

Emmanuel.K.Bensah is Ag. President of Ghanaian Association of Journalists in ICT (GHAJICT) ( http://ghajict.blogspot.com)

Hammamet was a Blast, But It's Time to Go Home

2005-11-20T21:38:00.000-08:00

The internet cafe -- Cyber Internet 35, rue Mokhtar Attia, 1000 Tunis--Tel:71.333.893 -- I am at is rather slow, as compared to the more expensive one at the hotel, wich runs like clockwork. Anyhoo...as a consequence, I am disinclined to write here too much, as I will probably end up paying around the same amount for what I would like to do.

All I can say is that Hammamet yesterday was a blast. When we left for the Gare de Tunis, it was getting to 10.30am. By 12pm, the train was taking off, with all seven of us on board. We had to get off another train, after travelling a good twenty-five minutes, before finally getting to Hammamet fifteen minutes later.

Shame on me for not following so much the history, but I suspect that is the place where Hannibal led the elephants on that abortive trip to conquer the Romans. I DID see many elephants--stone ones that is, and they were gargantuan, to say the least. Very life-like, and rather scary.

Hammamet is one of those places you just have to see, because other than the weather that was rather inclement--rain, and ice-cold wind--all of us enjoyed the place. Only problem is that the touristy areas are rather populated by Eastern Europeans, who pretend to be friendly when they want to get you to buy something, but are two drops short of rude when you tell them you're not interested, or rather diplomatically, "je reviendra".

They nknow you won't come back again, so they grunt something at you in their language. My colleague got a bag that was being sold originally at 90Tunisian dinars to 22 Tunisian Dinars! Talk about rip-off, and they expect deferential treatment when you refuse to buy? Please!

We were rather bemused by this young man of around twenty-three who had a chesire-cat grin on his face. "Ah, fantastic, bombastic!" when we told him we were all from Ghana, bar the very personable Tunisian friend of the family who was giving us a tour. Then he rattled out some cliched lyrics from some song, which promted visceral chuckles from all of us. He was humble, though, admitting that though he did not finish school "at least, I can give smile to people who come from all over!"

Or something like that.

Imagine the legendary Peter Sellers, of Return of the Pink Pather fame, emulating, or should that be feigning, a nasty Italian accent as Inspector Clouseau, and you get the picture of this young man.

I refused to spend, whilst all those around me pretended they were not spending:-) Honestly, women!! There was only one guy, and he was too young to relate to him.

The trip back to Tunis was a good one. We took a bus, and it took rather long. Almost two hours of travelling. God, I love long bus and train journies!!! I would have been in my element if it were not for the fact that I was SO fast asleep.

The warm bus, though endearing in the beginning, started to feel too warm, so I was compelled to open the window just a peak, to the annoyance of a few. But if there is something about the Tunisians, I got to give it to them that they can be very hospitable.

The example is that of the bus journey, which started off very full, with many people standing up. SOme of us found a seat, but three of us failed to land one, with the flurry of people jumping onto the bus, and seats. The eldest of my colleague's friends' family member, the aunt, decided that one of us should relinquish the seats for an old man.

I did.

The old man did not wat to sit down, cos he seemed to feel bad, but we insisted. He sat down, all smiles. Less than five minutes later, one of the young, hot-blooded males who had jumped to the back seat when we got on, gave up, yes, gave up, his seat for one of us. He stood up for a good ten minutes before he got down. He could have sat down till his destination, but motioned us to come and take a seat.

Not too long ater, a middle-aged man ALSO gave up his seat. It emerged that he was going to get down only about ten minutes later, too.

I was deeply impressed, and humbled.

One good turn DEFINITELY does deserve another. Respect definitely goes a long way. Granted, not everyone would have done the smae, but two people doing it was admirable.

I got home and landed so much in Jadeville that I couldn't spend long in front of the 'Net to make an update, so here I am.

Today has been another humbling experience. I spent most of the afternoon with a one of the members of Civil Society. A Nigerian, a graduate of the Universsity of Ibadan, who can quote Fanon and Shakespeare in one hour. A DEEPLY charismatic man, who spends a lot of time in Geneva in UN circles.

There are some SERIOUSLY great and interesting people in this world. Shakespeare aptly said some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have it thrown on them.

Well, if this ten nights in Tunis is anything to go by, the knowledge I have been exposed to just from listening to people has been immense. The so-called intellectual genuflection I referred to earlier, in my humble opinion, is apt.

I am such as small person when faced against such great minds.

Getting back home to normality is not going to be that easy.

Ghana Stand Could Have Done Better

2005-11-19T01:26:00.000-08:00

As for the Ghana stand, my colleague and I were rather disappointed with them. The best they could do was showcase…our beleagured National Communications Authority, and annoyingly badly-performing AREEBA. Actually, not quite. Sudan did that very nicely for us. What Ghana also showcased was Ghana’s privatised “ONETOUCH” service. I almost forgot. Must buy the sim card at 30 thousand cedis before the end of November, once I get back to Accra. Obour, with his almost indefatigable energy, has had ONETOUCH co-opt his song “SHINE YOUR EYE” for the promo, where you are supposed to get 10 SMSs free, since early October.

Even the African Development Bank was giving out t-shirts—I know, cos the lady there asked me to come at 3 pm, and I was there on the dot!—yet we had nothing free to give out.

More later this Saturday. I am off with my colleague to Hammamet, a more beautiful and historic place to see.

Taking Stock of WSIS: "Can do Better"--C+

2005-11-19T00:30:00.000-08:00

So, it’s over. For a summit that went into the hundred thousands of euros, it was pretty disappointing. Did not attend ONE single workshop today. Most had been cancelled, or the people were too few to continue. Looked like many people needed to get out of Tunis the fastest way possible:-)

Couldn’t get out of bed AT ALL today. Terrible. I know I am rather lazy already, but this was taking the biscuit, as it were. Each time I tried to get up, sleep just overcame me. I was beginning very fast and furiously to get fed up with what the French call “la foule”, or the crowd at WSIS.

Since I am such a baby, I sleep with the tv on at the hotel. Snoring through "Hardtalk with Stephen Sackur" has just got to be laughable, no? He’s asking those tough questions to a former UN ambassador, or the Palestinian authority representative, and I’m just overshadowing his questions with snore…and more snore…

Behind the levity of these words lies, or sits as the case may be, a deeply disappointed young man. I wanted to watch the proceedings, as it were in situ. Instead, we were confined to watching it from the so-called Civil Society Bureau, et al, on erected large screens. The Swiss President, I hear, was rather impressive from the outset. He looked very charismatic, I have to say.

A female Nigerian acquaintance, of the good-looking kind, told me that there was a party tonite organised by the South Africans, and she was looking out to see whether I was there. Duh, you didn’t have my number. You could have called me, lady!! I am SO green. Yet again, it seems. At this rate, by the time I get back on Tuesday evening, I would have turned into a vegetable.

But enough about my brain.

Disappointment was written on many many many people’s faces. Especially given the fact that the Citizen’s summit was cancelled by the Tunisian authorities, made for an even mire lugubrious atmosphere: the sense of malaise about qou vadis with this expensive gathering was palpable. I personally was disappointed by the International Telecommunication’s Union's decision–one of the UN’s oldest UN agencies, est.1870s—that it was decided by the UN as a whole to have the summit in TWO phases.

A third one would have probably been more realistic, because at this stage, where does the role of ICTs for development go from here? Lost in a maelstrom of rhetoric or what?

The last UN summit I attended was in May 2001, when I attended the UN conference on Least Developed Countries. It was my first-ever proper UN conference. Held in Brussels, hosted by the European Parliament, I didn’t have to stay in any fancy hotel to observe one basic thing about the nature of these UN conferences—the amount of hot air around it. The difference, though, between that one and this is that, primo, it was agreed that there would be a review of the UNLDC3 in 2006. Will there be a review for this one? With the LDC one, it was also the third, with the first two being held respectively in Paris…and Paris:-)

There were a host of semantics there as there was here, with "deliverables" and whatnot. The difference with that one though, on the positive side, was that journalists and other civil society organisations obtained the opportunity to have their voice heard, and offer constructive solutions to the outcome. There was also a sense of closure about it all. I felt no closure around this.

What I saw was many people networking, some with fancier gadgets than others. Of course, the 100$-a-child laptop rocks, (even if the dollar sign was supposed to come before the "100", but come on, sue me!). It is a fantastic idea, but like another acquaintance said, $100 is rather expensive in many developing countries. Not using electricity, though, but a wind-up operation is even cooler. I REALLY like that. I actually saw it tested yesterday by the MIT people near the UN stand at the exhibition area.

I have to put it on record that I found the UN stand the most relevant and comprehensive. It at least tried to connect the ICTs, whereas most of those there—bar some of the governments—were just there to puff themselves up, especially the private sector. SO you have good gizmos, but how PRECISELY will that contribute to being used as tools for development. Didn’t quite click with me.

Anyway, many people went to the exhibition to get freebies, too. I thought I was the only cheap-skate! Even Senegal was giving free zip-drives, can you imagine!! With their flags all emblazoned over the drives, as it were. I got a free t-shirt from the African Development Bank stand. Others got luckier…

Seriously, though, let’s face it. It was great being here, and some concrete things, though small, went through, but it could have been a whole lot better. Consider this. Both the ITU and Japanese government disbursed circa 777000 odd euros – yes, you read right! – towards this UN summit. The UN Conference on LDCs in 2001 cost a vertiginous, or staggering, sum of 12 million dollars. I understand it was more than the GDP, or so, of a Caribbean country.

For the results that have come out, sobering indeed. Very very sobering.

All that said, I still think the world without the UN would be a far worse place than it already is, and so if expectations and hopes were dashed, people might just reflect that WSIS is a process and not an outcome.

Still, can do better.

So, We Finally Voted…

2005-11-18T01:22:00.000-08:00

…and boy, was it laborious. Democracy in Africa, I swear! No wonder we are so left behind, our democratic process is like the oil that cogs the wheels. I had to run out of there after 9.30pm. After everyone was elected, kind of, they were going to proceed with the voting of the President.

Poof! I was all handshakes, smiles, and out the door to catch the Tunis bus into the town centre 20km away!

Only to come back to see that BBC had contacted me about my humble reportage of the WSIS process, and I had missed it! You can read about here:

It hurts. It hurts…

When Andy Warhol Laments : My Aborted Fifteen Minutes with the BBC

2005-11-18T00:59:00.000-08:00

I called my very good friend back in Accra this evening after a nice piece of pizza this evening. It was with shrimps this time, and was this side of heaven. She said she had missed my nagging and I should "hurry on home". Cheers, J!! Nice to know I am at least missed by someone, other than my parents.

Didn’t I say I was that pathetic? Oh, sorry.

Now, today has just been one heck of a long day. In the morning, I attended this very interesting workshop, entitled, "Framing Global Governance Processes Around WSIS". Sounded right up my street, and it was. Not to mention that it was organised by my organisation’s sister organisation in Uruguay—Third World Institute.

We looked at WSIS and the future, and how it is a process—not an outcome, etc. Two academics talked a bit about the semantics around WSIS and tried to make sense to us what we were trying to get out of the UN summit. I bemoaned the state of the private sector, and how we should not seek to endorse it so much at this summit, when exactly a month later, we shall be battling with them at the World Trade Organisation Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong! Didn’t sound very coherent to me, but hey, that’s only small me…

We looked a bit at power relations as, let’s face it, you’ve got the power, you’ve got it made. I am not at all surprised that the US will STILL maintain control, by way of ICANN, of the Internet. Of course there is word out in the conference circles that ICANN will need to incorporate more of the role of civil society, etc. Who knows?

Look, I will not bore you too much to death, but I thought a discussion away from me trying to chase members of the opposite sex or…a battery(!!), was called for. SO this is the change, but I can feel your eyes glazing over already, so please bear with me…

The weather…OUCH! One of the reasons why I am in here at all is to escape the cold. I am not kidding when I tell you that despite a cotton jacket and trousers, I am still feeling cold. Was so tempted to take my dinner indoors this evening. There was a chill wind blowing, and I don’t know whether it was a metaphor to signal the tensions that have been caused by some tussles between Tunisian security detail and other civil society activists over the semantics of workshops entitled "expression without repression=", as one blog has put it (http://blog.hiwired.com/archives/2005/11/well_this_doesn.html) , but all I know was that it was DEFINITELY cold.

I got a call from my friend/former neighbour in Belgium. She is South African, and is this side short of VERY personable. Not to mention seriously attractive. Steady on, she’s got a partner, and she’s living in a rather lush part of the outskirts in Brussels. Very green indeed. Oh, I’m not talking about the scenery—I’m talking about me;-) I do miss Belgium sometimes actually, and this bleeding cold weather is . No, I’m not on drugs, just getting intominimising my missing, as it were Jadeville, and feeling rather creative with my alliterative skills.

Getting back to the weather very quickly, it RAINED almost the whole day today. Yes, it did. Must be one of the reasons why it’s so cold, now. Yet, as befits Tunisian night activity, many people are outside even as it is midnight thirty-four!!

Oh, oh, oh. I missed my fifteen minutes of fame with the BBC. Here are the two emls they sent me:

1. ---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: "Kevin Anderson-Washington"
Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2005 14:00:44 -0000

>Emmanuel,
>
>I was just reading your posts about the WSIS in Tunis. I work for a
new
>BBC World Service Programme called World Have Your Say. It's a global
>discussion programme. We're trying to get a few audio diaries from
>attendees at the summit. We'd like to talk about tech/internet issues
>where you come from and what is being talked about at the summit.
>
>We'd ideally like about five minutes of audio both today and tomorrow.
>
>We could do this one of several ways.
>1) If you have a way of recording audio, you could send it to my Gmail
>account, globalkev@gmail.com
>2) We could interview you via Skype
>3) We could put you in touch with one of our BBC World Service teams
>there.
>
>Let me know if you are interested and if so, how we might be able to
do
>this.
>
>best,
>k
>Kevin Anderson
>BBC World Service and Five Live
>kevin.anderson@bbc.co.uk
>http://www.
>bbcnews.com/worldhaveyoursay
>http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/programmes/upallnight_blog/
>
>(w - UK) +44.207.557.0293
>(m - UK) +44.7796.102.155
>skype: kevglobal
>"The best way to predict the future is to invent it" Alan Kay
>
>
>
>http://www.bbc.co.uk/
>
>This e-mail (and any attachments) is confidential and may contain
>personal views which are not the views of the BBC unless specifically
>stated.
>If you have received it in error, please delete it from your system.
>Do not use, copy or disclose the information in any way nor act in
>reliance on it and notify the sender immediately. Please note that the
>BBC monitors e-mails sent or received.
>Further communication will signify your consent to this.

And

2.
FROM: "Kevin Anderson-Washington" | Save Address

DATE: Wed, 16 Nov 2005 15:10:00 -0000
TO:
SUBJECT: BBC interview request update

Emmanuel,

Just an update. We don't need anything as complicated as an audio diary. We would simply like you to join our programme for about 15 minutes between 1900 and 2000 local time there in Tunis. I can provide you with a more precise time in just a little while. The issues will be the same, but we don't need anything as complicated as an audio diary. Just a couple of phone numbers - a landline and a mobile phone number for you.

thank you for your time,
k
Kevin Anderson
BBC
World Service and Five Live
kevin.anderson@bbc.co.uk
http://www. b
bcnews.com/worldhaveyoursay
http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/programmes/upallnight_blog/
(w - UK) +44.207.557.0293
(m - UK ) +44.7796.102.155
skype: kevglobal
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it" Alan Kay

http://www.bbc.co.uk/

I sent him a text message, and he unfortunately texted me back a few ten minutes ago that the programme had already aired!!

OUCH!!

The day you decide to leave not checking your mails, then Murphy’s Law strikes!

Still at Palexpo Kram

2005-11-17T20:15:00.000-08:00

We continue to deliberate over which sub-regional coordinators should be represented. Nigeria was not amused at the fact that a predominant number of the people there were francophone, plus the fact that the text of ACSIS statues was available ONLY in French.

Yes, the francophone/anglophone divide exists very much in Africa. It is a great shame. This is one of the reasons why it will take long for us to move forwrd. We started at around 5.15pm. It is now 8.18pm. How much longer?!!!

Running Late to Vote for the African Civil Society on WSIS (ACSIS)

2005-11-17T17:05:00.000-08:00

The title says it all. Oh, I posed at the Rwanda stand yesterday with no-one less than Republic of South Africa Thabo Mbeki. He is actually shorter in real life than he seems on tv.

You cannot imagine the security detail that trailed him. Surprisingly, he was VERY friendly, urging all those round to take a picture with him, too. I got to even shake his hand. But I was not in awe. Not when he is going round portraying South Africa and NEPAD like the panacea to Africa's problems.

Not on your nelly!

I have to go vote for the very very personably young woman at this ACSIS election now...

Excerpts from the Roundtable: Russia Speaks...and Defining Indigenousness

2005-11-17T17:01:00.000-08:00

E.Krikunenko speaks about her organisation: "all indigenous people of russian north...fishing, hunting, reindeer breeding. They have no access to internet, because we have no electricity. One phone line for 200 people in the community. This is why access to ICT is so important for us. To get noticed, education...and the opportunity to promote our rights". It is being chaired by one K.Deer, who looks like a Red Indian.

Hey, isn't he that guy from The Xfiles' Season 2, who got beaten up by Cancer Man, when Mulder disappeared??;-)

Intellectual Genuflection & How the CR-123 Taught me Humility

2005-11-17T00:34:00.000-08:00

If you do not know what the CR123 is, allow me to explain very briefly. It is a 3V lithium battery that you use for your low-tech appareil photo, or camera. I specifically use "low-tech", because digital cameras being the rage now, it is very passé to see someone still angling around their low–tech camera—unless you happen to be called Emmanuel.K.Bensah. Ok, go on, laugh. I think I told you my Zire Palm 72 gave up the ghost just a few days before I got here, and didn’t have the time to do anything about it.

Well, today, I took my laptop along to the Civil Society Bureau (CSB) area at Palexpo Kram. My laptop said there was a device missing. The Wireless was supposed to be working, you see. I must have done something wrong, so I abandoned the whole idea and resorted to lugging it all the way around the place like a little kid I am. Honestly!!

Anyway, I sit myself at the cusp of historical change – smile! – cos I have finally found the battery I was looking for. The blasted CR123 was being sold literally minutes walk away from the hotel, yet this morning, shopkeeper after shopkeeper sent me going up and down the street like a madman. I almost thought this particular lithium battery was alien to Tunis! I cussed no-end, but I decided to persist tonight. I WAS NOT going to spend tomorrow morning sweating profusely walking up and down when I needed to attend a workshop at 9am on the role of institutions in the reformation of the digital divide.

Or something like that.

Anyway, it truly was a humbling experience. I had to go fifteen minutes drive away from my hotel to this place closer to the Palexpo, where the quintessential French chain of supermarkets is located. CARREFOUR it’s called. You can find their website here: http://www.carrefour.fr. When my colleague told me CARREFOUR was in Tunis, I could hardly believe my ears. If you have ever heard of BRICOBI, the do-it-yourself people that are even in Spain, well, back in Belgium, most of the GB shops (http://www.gb.be) were now being replaced by CARREFOUR. This revelation only went to confirm how UTTERLEY European this country is aspiring to be!

Anyway, at Carrefour, which is a HUGE department store, I thought I found what was the CR123, except that this was smaller. In my joy, I dismissed my initial reservations, and just picked it up. I have wasted a good 8 Tunisian dinars. Divide that by 1.35 and you get the dollar equivalent. Sorry, am getting tired again.

I thought you knew I am slow…

With regards to the workshops today, well, after the midday submission, I have to say that I was better inspired. I attended one on Regional perspectives and ICTs, where all the UN’s regional commissions (UNECA, UNESCAP, UNECE, ECLAC) provided an overview of their regions, and the extent to which ICT had empowered the region or not.

This session had the newly-elected Executive Secretary of UNECA there; UNCTAD Secretary-General Supachai Panikpadi, former monk, and former director-general of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) there; as well as His Excellency the President of the Republic of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, who has made magnificent strides for his country in, primo, making the country bi-lingual after the egregious 1994 genocide, as well as propelling Rwanda through very good governance, and avant-garde ICT empowerment.

The Rwandan story is rather humbling. I spoke to two Rwandans at the Rwanda stand yesterday, and chatted with them. They did not want me recording what they were saying, so I took notes and assured them I was not going to quote their names. I got a bag of fresh Rwandan coffee.

Good stuff!!

I have to say if ever you get the chance; go to the country they call the land of "Milles Collines", or a Thousand Hills. Anyone who thinks Rwandans are primitive and still fighting has not yet matured from their atavistic state.

Harsh? Well, so is assuming Rwanda is so backward that they have not moved on ten years after the genocide. They are an example of a country that has done it, and a testament to man’s capacity to re-deem himself after horrific events happen to him.

One more act of PR: Rwanda is the only country on the sub-continent—not sure about the world, but possibly—that I know that has more women in Parliament than men—circa 49%.

Now, intellectual genuflection was what popped into my mind in the wake of all these revelations, because I realise that the more I read and talk to people about WSIS, the less I realise I know.

I am really not worthy. I am but a small bee buzzing around on the…yes, yes…cusp of this historical change blowing through the information society.

One concrete development: 12 May will from hereonin be designated World Information Society Day.

Gosh, it’s midnight twenty-two now. Another day gone. Another pizza—of a normal kind, sissoula!!

Till tomorrow, or as that should be, till much later today…

I am Humbled, BBC...More on A&C (Ghana)

2005-11-16T17:28:00.000-08:00

Out of 12 pages of looking for "Tunis WSIS", the British Broadcasting Corporation decided to take a look at mine. Obviously, noone left a comment, but they were there!!! Or, rather, they were here...;-)

On the Ghanaian front, someone who has access to aandcdevelopment webmail :(16 Nov, Wed, 11:49:13 http://webmail.aandcdevelopment.com/src/read_body.php?mailbox=INBOX&passed_id=490&startMessage=1 ) visited this site.

I now know that A&C Development FINALLY has a website, which you can readily take a look at here: http://aandcmall.com/.

Why I never thought of going into PR beats me. Honestly...

Off to another workshop, which started late...only ten minutes ago...

Incidentally, the UN delegates deliberations have been beamed through to the Palexpo Kram,and so as I type this, I could literally give you a running commentary...but won't bother. Too jaded by it all really;-)

Microsoft is about to talk, but the CEO of KDDI will talk right now. Let's go:

No idea what company that is. The guy is Japanese; he is talking about "how to enhance" something or other "for developing countries".

PLease change the record!

Reflecting the Eccentric World of...WSIS

2005-11-16T12:42:00.000-08:00

For your info, I am writing two variants of my experience of WSIS 2005, Tunis. The one, for the more international audience is at this link here, and the one for the pan-african audience(though all nationalities are welcome!) is on this particular blog.

Thanks, Global Voices, for picking up on my feeds, nut honestly, I cannot for the life of me understand why people would be looking for links like these:

1. 15 Nov, Tue, 17:26:45 Google: wantto have sex in ghana in madina or east legon

In the words of Buffy, in one of those memorbale episodes back in Season I, "I think I speak for everybody when I go "huh?!" "

Ok, ok, so I'm a relic. Sue me!

Early Start, My foot! Pure Hubbub

2005-11-16T12:32:00.000-08:00

Couldn't get out of bed his morning. I ended up arriving later than anticipated. I''m currently at the Cyber Espace are, where a predominant number of us, clad in suits and whatnot, are standing up checking our mails and whatnot, whlst a minority sit down. The cyber-espace place is cleverly darkened, as if it were lit, stands to reason that we would all be feeling rather hot.

I am getting rather pessimistic about this meeting; it is not because BBC World, in its characteristically objective reporting from its correspondent in Tunis opined that the meeting may "run the risk of being bogged down...as there will be too much communication anad little action", but the fact that there are TOO many things to attend to. All interesting, and mostly going on around the same time.

Not to mention the sheer number of people milling around. There are several varieties: the lost and confused kind; the lost and concerned; the lost yet determined kind. I fall somewhere among all three!!:-)

A meeting started at midday, called "ICT and the Global DevelopmentSystem: The Transformative Potential of ICT for "Development for All" ". Look at me! It's gone almost twenty minutes past, yet here I am typing this...I best be off. There's another at 1pm that is more relevant, so I might just wait for that instead of rushing to this one that ends at 1.30pm...

You see, this is the type of scenario many of us are facing. The stands, whilst very psychedelic and interesting, offer a showcasing of company's products--not to mention government ones--that is fine, but I reckon they are more distractions than anything. The only one I have found really useful was the UN stand that provided many publications on substantive issues around WSIS.

Ofcourse, knowing the voluminous nature of UN publications, I would need an extra suitcase to carry them all back to Accra...we'll see.

My colleague just called me to find out where I am...we have a rendez-vous that I am not looking forward to. I sincerely hope this meandering of minds and ideas becomes subsumed by concrete outcomes.

It's time for the UN to reclaim the world stage--yet again!! And, please not without "deliverables", and "programmes of actions", but RESULTS. Please, we SO need that...

Watching Tony Blair, My Dinner Awaits!

2005-11-16T12:26:00.000-08:00

The Prime Minister of the Republic of Tunisia, Mohamed Ghannouchi, has invited ALL participants of the UN WSIS to attend "a welcome ceremony followed by a reception" today from 6pm to 8pm at Palexpo le Kram.

This was the invite in the bags that everyone received upon registration the first day.

Ouch, my colleague has gone AWOL, so I am left alone trying to figure out which particular meeting to go. Flies, regrettably, abound in the area I'm in...it's the toilets that are FAR too close for comfort! They could have used some breeze or something, cos it certainly sullies the area!

In any event, I watched Tony Blair at the Lord Mayor's banquet on BBC World yesterday evening. I taped most of it as I had to go out, but what I saw was quite funny. The script-writers must have been comedians. I found myself laughing at some of his cracks! Good stuff.

But then he went all serious later, and talked about the war on terror, globalisation's inevitability, and other foreign policy issues. I heard from the running commentary prior to the speech that Blair is thinking of how he will be viewed by historians, and right now he has to be in sync with Gordon Brown, chancellor of the Exchequer, but also his principal rival, as Brown is set to succeed him, according to the commentary from BBC, "next year by this time".

Already?

Later, when I caught the news, it was about how Brazil, India, China must do their best, alonside developing countries, to liberalise more trade, trade in services and whatnot.

Bastard.

I was SO bored. Same ole, same ole...And the World Bank has entered the fray, too. Pisses me off no end.

Anyway, look, I am looking forward to MORE social interaction, as it were. Who knows what can happen at a reception:-) Nudge nudge, wink, wink...

Fingers crossed!

What, Do I, Like, Look French to You?

2005-11-15T12:05:00.000-08:00

Ah stereotypes! Stereotypes, stereotypes, stereotypes. It is bound to run amok in a gathering like this. I hear Kofi Annan is in town. Obviously, the hotel is probably kept secret.

I am in the Civil Society area of the Palexpo Kram. Sorry I cannot bring you any piccies as my Zire Palm decided to give up on me a few days before I left. There was no time to do anything about it...

Pooh, so I am resorting to normal pictures:-( Talk about low-tech in a hi-tech place like this, where almost everyone with a laptop is checking out their emails whilst a meeting goes on. Yes, WI-FI, or wireless internet is in FULL swing, baby!

As for the taxi-driver, well, I had to go deliver something on behalf of my Dad to his acquaintance who works at the African Development Bank. Can you actually believe that there is a road called "Avenue de Ghana", that is one of the three streets that leads to the ADB? Wow...

Anyway, did that, left and caught a cab. He bemoaned the state of Tunis, telling me that "c'est un police d'Etat". Funny, my Dad's friend also said the same thing. You wouldn't think it to see it, though. I thought the place was so secure because of the UN status of the summit and the high number of dignatries--ouch spelling!!--attending.

Both two bemoaned that the police was too much, and what are the Tunisians afraid of? A policeman almost round every corner. Seriously. That bad. For foreigners, I think it's quite welcome, but I can understand why the denizens do not think the same way.

Oh, well.

The taxi driver was interesting. He tried to teach me how to say "welcome" and "bonjour" in Arabic. Sounded cool! Not that I could say it without chuckling or anything, but the language is seriously very elegant. He asked me where I came from, and I was not surprised when he associated football with Ghana. He said that he could detect an anglophone accent.

Conversely, two or three people right here during the past two hours have addressed me in French--and I have responded straight back at them, with a smile, in English, triggering a visceral chuckle from both of us. The anglophone accent and the stunted attempt at speaking French is so detectable:-), don't you think? I doubt any anglophone can ever pass the French test of speaking fluently with a francophone accent -- do you? Bar Jodie Foster, whom I heard, what, four/five years ago in an interview on Belgian television speaking IMPECCABLEMENT. Sexy.

Eyeing the Opposite Sex...With a Long Kiss

2005-11-14T14:33:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I do not think it is any secret that in a ny grand gathering like this, if you are a hot-blooded male, like myself, and very single, your eyes will be scanning the horizon faster than any ADSL connection you could think of:-) Forgive the forced humour, but I have to say it's been rather disappointing on the social interaction front here in Tunis.

Suffice to say, the women are GORGEOUS, but they have no time for any other race than theirs, which is a shame, but, then again, not surprising.

As far as gender equality goes, I think Tunisian guys are way off tangent. There is a stand for each country here at the World Summit on Information Society. Each country is represented, as is private sector, whatnot. I found my stand--Ghana, and I heard some horror stories from the ladies that the Tunisian men are "uncouth". They don't care whether theer is a ring on your finger or not, they will stop their cars and make signs to the women that they are keen to go to bed with them!! Can you imagine that...

I can't, frankly, cos as a guy, I have had a positive experience> Okay, so they exude some degree of machismo that is characteristic of the stereotype of Arab men, but, honestly, they have been very friendly.

Also, I hear that whilst there are mosquitoes here, the male ones collect nectar--huh?--whilst the female ones do the biting. Does black widow and queen bee come to mind?

Oh, I FOUND BBC World for myself on the tv this morning. I wasgetting fed up with watching French tv -- TF1 and France 2, which, though helped to keep my French fresh, was boring me to death.

Except yesterday. The Full Monty was on, as part of TF1's Cine Dimanche, as was that ever-so-sexy Geena Davis playing alongside Samuel L Jackson in...you guessed it, the 1996 fantastic action thriller "Long Kiss Goodnight". I don't know how many times I have watched that movie, but I always get SO hooked with the film. From L Jackson's lines, to Brian Cox's about taking them to the zoo (after the shoot-out at the Central Station) to the bad guy's character, it is all so believable.

That film remains on my top 10 best films. I'd love to do the imdb link, but seeing as I am at the cyber-cafe at the Kram Palexpo, where security is tight even on the Net, not sure whether it will be possible. Let's try. {ouch, they have blocked the "START" so that you cannot browse any other programmes on the computer. Smart. Which means if this gets lost, it gets lost!!!} ok. Here's the link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116908/

I also read in yesterday's Tunis paper that Geena Davis has an IQ of, what 140 or something, and that she is playing in a new role in the US as female president. The series is called "Commander-in-Chief" or something...http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0429455/.

Gosh, that woman is SO good.

On a personal note, managed to track that gorgeous woman I bumped into at the airport Friday afternoon. She is working at one of the stands--the Rwandan one--and works for one of the World Bank programmes. She tried my number again, got through. I saved that number of hers faster than...chose your pick: blink of an eye/an ADSL connection/you could say "jack robinson".

Regrettably, she is at the stand most of the time, but I'm eyeing this member of the opposite sex with...dinner in mind.

Honest!

What One Tunisian Newspaper is Saying about WSIS...The Eve of Day Two of Internet Governance Discussions

2005-11-13T19:30:00.000-08:00

It's a cool, dry Sunday evening. It's almost 8pm, and I am sitting at the Internet cafe of the Hotel. I have in my hand one newspaper--Le Renouveau. It's subtitle is "organe du rassemblement constitutionnel democratique", and the redacteur en chef, or editor-in-chief is one Nejib Ouerghi.

Here are some of the headlines on WSIS in today's paper:

1. XVIIIeme Anniversaire du Changement--Le Chef D'Etat recoit des messages de felicitations de plusiers organisations et associations. Cohesion autour de Ben Ali et engagement a faire reussir le SMSI:: 18th Anniversary of Change. The Head of State Receives Messages of Congratulations from Many Organisations and Associations. Cohesion around Ben Ali and an engagement to make WSIS Succeed.

2. Reprise, aujourd'hui, des travaux de la Prepcom3. Le document politique et la declaration de Tunis, a l'ordre du jour: The Resumption, today, of PrepCom3. The policy document and the Tunis declaration top the agenda.

3. L'urgence de reduire la fracture numerique: The urgent need to bridge the digital divide

4. Les Jeunes Au SMSI:Une mobilisation remarquable, un engagement total: Youth at WSIS: a Remarkable Mobilisation, Total Engagement

5. Intel entend lancer un projet de modernisation par le tout numerique en Afrique du Nord et Moyen-Orient: Intel counts launching a modernisation project...in North Africa and the MIddle East

6. Quatre secteurs seront cibles par investissement: l'entreprenneuriat local, l'education, laccessibilite au systeme digital et la specialisation des competences techniques: Four Sectors will be Targetted for investment: Local Entrepeneur, Education; Accessibility to Digital System, and the Specialisation of Technical competencies

...and many more.

Looks like Tunis is capitalising big-time, as one would do, on its status as the cynosure of the place where information society sits at the cusp of historical change.

And it certainly looks to be a big summit. Internet governance talks started tpday, but I stayed in the hotel most of the time, being fed French news and some French inanity left, right centre. It was only later in the afternoon that I decide it was time to listen to the radio, and check out a few good radio stations.

Of course good is relative.

I ended up, apart from Radio Mosaique that inspired yesterday's title, finding two or three other stations. There was Radio Tunis international on 98.2 FM. They surprisingly have a mosaique of languages. First, I heard English, where they interviewed around 2.30pm a civil society activist on the WSIS, then later French news, then later Italian, and some Italian music.

Talk about eclectic.

The other stations were playing some alluring and rather sensual Tunisian music, which sent signals viscerally to your body to shake some body stuff, y know:-)

Later, after having my bath, strolled down the boulevard that runs adjacent to the street that leads to the Hotel I am staying in, and I enjoyed the fresh air and psychedelic lights.

I went to one particular hotel -- Hotel Africa -- that is a towering edifice located right in the heart of the boulevard. AFter passing through the hotel security, where I was asked to take off my watch, several dinar coins and other metalliuc stuff on me, walked through the elegant hallway that made no bones that it was a five star hotel.

I just had to try the food here. SO up I went to the fifth floor. I knew it was fifth because I was here yesterday evening to an empty room.

It was empty again, but I persisted. I asked for Couscous and Lamb stew.

Sumptious!

Couldn't even finish it all. For dessert, Tunisian patisserie, which was predominantly pistache and sugar baked together very elegantly. Didin't finish that either. My orange juice, like yesterday at another eaterie, was freshly-squeezed.

After about an hour, feeling a bit cut-off from the outside world as I sat all alone on the fifth floor eating, I left--with a very full stomach.

I needed to walk, so I walked plenty...found some papers, and here I am.

Earlier, met two civil society delegates from Zimbabwe who were doing some passive window-shopping. Passive, because the shops were mostly closed.

As I write now, shops are re-opening, and activity has begaun anew.I've been here almost two hours again.

Tomorrow promises to be interesting; I am definitely looking forward to it, but before I take leave of you, must note for posterity that the magasine I bought just a few hundred metres away from here had the alluring title: SMSi. Les Enjeux du Sommet de Tunis WSIS: The Stakes of the Tunis Summit.

Internet Governance is certainly one of those.

I hope to be able to blog from the Kram Exhibition Park tomorrow, despite the business of the place.

Tunis : A Mosaique of Breathtaking Frenchness and Beauty

2005-11-12T18:47:00.000-08:00

"En Tunis, si tu oublie quelque chose, tu peux y aller et venire, ca restera au meme place". This is how I would begin a memorable period in a country I never dreamt of visiting – let alone for a UN World Summit on Information Society.

It’s getting to 7pm, or 19heures, over here in Tunis. I’m sitting at an Internet café specially prepared for participants of the WSIS, or SMSI in French. I am the only one here, yet I know that there are WSIS participants staying at the hotel. To my immediate left are transparent doors that look into and outside this place.

Goodlooking—nay, gorgeus-looking—women pass with their boyfriends, friends, etc, passing a poster that says “KILL BILL. Cette Semaine au Cinema”.

How long has the film been out again? I thought it was almost a year. Reminds me of the legendary questionable rights that Tunisians are supposed to have. When I say rights, I am talking about censorship.

I’m actually thinking of checking that film out. Maybe not tonite, though. I have to pretend to myself that I can do something serious whilst I am preparing for the Internet governance discussions to begin 13 November. It ends on 15 November. The following day, 16, is when the Summit ends, only to end on the 18. I get almost two days free time.

Almost.

There are workshops, or ateliers, that I and my colleague are bent on attending, so I am not going to shirk that one.

The information society maybe lost to many people. In the beginning, even I couldn’t get my head round the utility of a conference round it, but now having back-pedalled and seen the bigger picture, I am beginning to think that it’s pretty cool being here.

Especially in Tunis.

We are treated like royalty. We, being those delegates going to the WSIS. These people are far friendlier than I ever anticipated or expected. Many of them after they ask me where I am from say “bienvenue. Tu es chez toi.” Alright so they are tutoieing me, that is not using “vous” since they do not know me, but I am not bothered. They seem to like me, and I certainly find them personable.

They have been very accueuillant, or welcoming, as they say. My French is upping the ante again big time. There is no CNN in my room. Just TF1, France 2 and a host of Tunisian/Arabic stations. I wish I could speak Arabic. Considering it’s a UN language. We sometimes forget don’t we that it’s spoken by a sizeable part of the world.

But a sizeable part of the world do not have signs contemporaneously in French and Arabic. Neither, as far as I know, have predominantly French influence in a country that is supposed to be predominantly Moslem.

There are many Peugeots here—the funk, latest ones—as well as the latest BMWs, even rovers. The buildings like white a lot—as they like blue, shiny faces too. Looks swell.

As I arrived into the town centre (rue de Marseillaise) near the Hotel Oscar, you could have sworn you were approaching Paris. I swear, man.

This is a gorgeous city. It certainly is not reminiscent of Africa, which in many ways is a shame. What happened to the dusty roads?

The security detail (men taking turns in the lobby and outside with their inimitable earpiece) treats you like royalty and you are sure that you will come to no harm.

When I stupidly forgot my suitcase at the badging centre yesterday, I was assured by security that they would find it and bring it back to me. Though they didn’t find it initially, when I was asked to return with the bus people (they did come to the hotel after I reported it), they asked me to tag along.

Within minutes, I found it not far from where I forgot it. It had been on the bus, but in all our haste to get to the badging centre, I forgot it on the bus after I helped a Rwandan delegate who’s bag got torn, leaving all contents trailing. God her colleague was just this side short of very sexy. The slender Rwandan physique, the smooth physiognomy, and that beautifully permed hair she kept on stroking. Wow.

I must have been driven to distraction.

Never again!

The sweat beads that trickled down my face as I pondered over the prospect of losing my suitcase was too great.

And so, when the friendly, congenial and gregarious security man who happened to be a police officer monitoring activity at the badging area late last night told me that "
In Tunis, if you forget something somewhere, you can go and come and find it there", I was inclined to believe him.

Just behind us read the gigantic sign "Aeroport Fret".

I was not lost in the irony.

From Accra to Italy With...Delay and Trepidation

2005-11-12T18:39:00.000-08:00

Suffice to say, I am now in Tunis, at this place called Hotel Oscar. The street name? "Rue de Marseillaise". For a country that is situated right between Algeria and Libya who have dubious histories of French involvement (remember how Nobel Peace prize winner Albert Camus refused the prize for his classic 'L'Etranger', which blazed the trail for existentialist thought, because of his perception of French imperialism. That was one of the reasons anyway).

So how does delay and trepidation come into the story? Very easily.

I wonder why people still fly with Alitalia. Last time I took it--in 2000--to come to Accra from Brussels, we weren't particularly impressed. There was, then also, a delay, and the serving of the food was late. This time, the food was on time, good, and very enjoyable, but the equipment looked like it needed to have "relic" parenthesised to it--and hey, if that word doesn't exist, I am coining it right now:=)

Seriously, we were supposed to take off at 23h45. Instead, it was around 30 minutes later that we took off, when most of the passengers were dosing in the airport lounge. There was an apology over the tannoy, but being warned about the weather in Italy--misty and cold as it was--did little to assuage fears that we would get there on time.

Thankfully, we did. Most were asleep within 15 minutes of the plane taking off, but had to be awoken to be brought food.

The trepidation, thankfully, was allayed. The delay too--as we miraculously arrived on time in Malpensa, Milan. The treatment of those of us of a darker shade, even with our visas already processed, was nothing to laugh about. Being bungled in a room with around seven others, excluding my work colleague, tantamount to a cell and asked to have passports kept for about twenty minutes when it was clear that the Embassy had issued a transit visa for all of us, was humiliating. But that's another story that deserves discussion on Trials and Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen

BTW, went to the Exhibition parc today -- Kram it's called. Tunis is many parts of Europe, especially Paris, in a time warp!!