Black Web 2.0

Black Web 2.0 was recently ranked among top 6 blogs in the world by TLC Studio, a design studio that monitors and critics web 2.0 with special emphasis on Africa. The full list is as follows:

1. TechCrunch

2. ReadWriteWeb

3. Black Web 2.0
(more…)

Many blogs and sites have cropped up to help get the word out about the post-election violence in Kenya. One site playing a great role www.Ushahidi.com, where you report an incident and it appears in a map-based view for others to see.  The Ushahidi team is working with local Kenyan NGO’s to get information and to verify each incident.

You can also sms your incident to +44 762 480 2635  and  e-mail tips@ushahidi.com

For more ways to help Kenya, visit Afromusing

Written by Kui Kinyanjui (Business Daily Africa)

Well before the elections, it was apparent that technology was going to be a key medium for the delivery of news and information to the masses.

More than ever before, technology is driving political campaigns in Kenya and around the world.

Even with the current post-election crisis —and with the ban on live broadcasting of political events, the SMS and blogs have become the new channel of communication.

Shortly after the 2005 constitution referendum, the machinery that was created to propel Raila Odinga to the presidential podium was already gearing up for the 2007 elections.

The first platform where the carefully moulded campaign was tested was on the web, where Mr Odinga’s team used an interactive website —www.raila07.com — to publicize his campaign efforts, mostly to citizens and concerned parties outside Kenya.

In the run-up to the elections, other candidates revealed their websites, which often worked in conjunction with other technology dependent services such as SMS and e-mail feedback.

All three frontrunners for the presidential post also took advantage of the global trend that has seen social networking websites such as Facebook, Youtube and MySpace gain huge following to advance their ambitions.

The candidates used the websites to promote their agendas and feature highlights of their campaign trails as well as receive feedback from voters.

“Many people did not know it, but most of the comments we received were acted upon in some way, whether they were negative or positive. It was the real thing,” said one communications agent for a presidential contender.

He declined to be named, but said that the web and SMS offerings were often the most accurate means of gauging the mood of the electorate.

With candidates recognising the Internet as a key avenue for campaign information flow and SMS acting as an instrument that could both raise campaign funds and receive feedback from the electorate, spend on the new genres is said to have risen by as much as 80 per cent in the last year alone.

In the run up to the elections, the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) and several premium SMS providers also launched voter registration services which grew in popularity as the December 27th date approached.

“The ECK website (www.eck.or.ke) and SMS number 0204605872 — where a voter sends a short message containing his or her ID number — is available for scrutiny and verification of voter registration details. ECK calls on any one interested in perusing or purchasing the voters register to feel free to do so,” said Mr Samuel Kivuitu, the ECK Chairman.

ECK’s venture into delivering voter registration via SMS details became the hot commodity that saw the telecommunication giants, Telkom Kenya and Safaricom face off in October.

During the elections, technology took on more prominence as the media also turned to the new channel for dissemination of information, using it to both inform and disinform.

As results were released and in what was a country first, www.nationmedia.com provided live and continuous updates on results as they rolled in from constituencies, complemented by a dedicated page on YouTube, which relayed footage from NTV to audiences, most of whom were spread across the diaspora.

New opportunities for citizen journalism arose as novice reporters around the country captured the unfolding events using their mobile phone cameras and uploaded the footage using the GPRS enabled networks.

Initiated by the Africa Interactive Media Foundation, a new project dubbed Voices of Africa created camjos—the short form of ‘camera’ and ‘journalist’— who chronicled the events during the elections using their mobile phones.

However, the dark side of technology use soon revealed itself.

Well before the electioneering period began, messages sent from anonymous numbers began circulating among subscribers, either supporting or attacking the position of disparate political groups.

That number rose as political tensions rose across the country.

A message sent to a number of Safaricom subscribers promised legal action should inflammatory remarks be sent using mobile network, setting a precedent within the industry which has largely escaped such monitoring efforts during its short existence.

“The Ministry of Internal Security urges you to please desist from sending or forwarding any SMS that may cause public unrest. This could lead to your prosecution,” said the SMS sent to a large number of subscribers.

“Whether you are using your mobile phone in a hotel or whether you are paying off groups, you will be held equally criminally responsible for the acts that are taking place,” said Eric Kiraithe, the police spokesman during a Press conference.

Safaricom said the SMS was sent at the request of the Ministry of Communications and was initially supposed to be sent to all its subscribers, but the process was suspended as network resources at the height of the election crisis were unavailable to handle the mass message.

As the focus shifted towards finding peaceful solutions to the conflict around the country, Safaricom subscribers soon received a message asking them to embrace peace and exercise restraint to restore calm in the nation.

Technology is turning out to be an instrument of preaching peace too. Every time you top up, there is a message of peace.

*Source: allAfrica.com

Mix together elements of YouTube, Flickr and MySpace and you’ve got Zoopy, a social networking site for the country of South Africa. Starting back in March 2007, the site bases its operations off the premise of sharing photos and video for your network of friends, or even complete strangers.

Recently introduced to the site is the Zoopy Street Cam, a first-person, man-on-the-street type format where people are directly asked their opinions on issues in and about South Africa. Even local politicians are jumping on the Zoopy bandwagon, including Cape Town mayor and leader of the Democratic Alliance Helen Zille. According to Zille, “[Zoopy] is an incredibly promising project.” This sort of political transparency is refreshing, especially given how reticent a majority of politicians here in the States have been in terms of embracing technology for reaching out to their constituents.

While Zoopy is but one of a host of social networking sites, there’s not much behind their smiley yellow mascot that you wouldn’t find on any other social networking site. What Zoopy does have going for it is context. Pictures and videos are local to South Africa, giving people an inside look into their country, their customs and more. But without any revolutionary features or a new perspective or take on the social networking landscape, Zoopy stands the chance of fading into the background of larger, less local competitors.

Technorati Tags: zoopy, social networking, video, south africa, web 2.0, startup

It’s no secret that Black music celebrities and the Internet have a tenuous relationship. Whether it’s being the butt of a celebrity blogger’s joke or the subject of adoration on a fansite or message board, Black music celebrities end up taking one of two positions when it concerns the ‘Net: milquetoast admirer or bloodthirsty opponent.

The Congolese-French musician Kaysha is definitely an exception.

Dubbed as “the future of Afro-Caribbean music”, Kaysha’s energetic, frenetic music style samples influences from R&B, hip-hop, calypso, rhumba, zouk, kizomba and zouglou. Kaysha has four solo albums under his belt, runs his own music label Sushiraw Entertainment, his own T-shirt line called Sushiraw Clothing and has performed for thousands of fans all over Europe and Africa.

Fans, no doubt, came to follow Kaysha through his far-reaching range on the Web. He has taken advantage of several Web 2.0 services available to help craft his online image, including over 100 videos of his performances and behind the scenes moments on Viddler, over 11,000 photos on his Flickr account, and personal, up-to-the-minute accounts of his life on the road through his Twitter account. And like any music artist these days, Kaysha also has a MySpace page to showcase his music and list upcoming events. Because of these multimedia offerings, Kaysha’s fans can really get a personal connection to the artist from seeing his videos, reading his blog posts (of course, he has a blog) and listening to his music. Web 2.0 technology lets the fans really experience his life (without resorting to a tacky reality show on VH1 or BET).

More Black artists could follow Kaysha’s example and craft their own online presence.

When it comes to Web 2.0 technology and most Black artists, there’s not much of an intersection. It’s an odd observation considering the penchant for mobile and vehicular gadgetry flocked by most and celebrated in shows like MTV’s “Cribs”. But when you really think about Black music artists and the Internet, you have to ask yourself if they really leverage what the Web has to offer for their own purposes, or do they relegate themselves to the contempt and sarcasm of celebrity gossip bloggers?

Afrigator is one of several African blog aggregators which collects and displays web pages, blog posts and more from all over the continent in one aesthetically gorgeous package.

As shown here on the home page, the top 20 tags and searches are displayed; articles are categorized by date and country channels, including a five-star ranking system, and a link to add the particular article to Muti, an African social bookmarking site. There is even an option to add the link to MyGator (with OpenID support!), a personal page with collected posts you’ve saved, as well as the ability to add a tracking code to your blog so posts you create are automatically listed on Afrigator.

Afrigator specifically pulls content from African blogs, so you can find a large and varied amount of information directly from people on the continent in any country throughout the diaspora. RSS feeds are even available for the front page of the site and for any country’s channel.

Afrigator was created by South African web professionals Justin Hartman, Mike Stopforth and Mark Forrester, and is currently in the alpha stage of development. Afrigator.com is currently on Business 2.0’s “It’s A Web, Web, Web 2.0 World” — which lists the 31 hottest non-US startups — at #20.

I came across Afriville.com today on Digg and was intrigued. As I researched this website I began to learn more and more about a whole Africa 2.0 movement. Whether I read criticism or encouragement, both sides seem to be driven by a passion for developing awareness around African Web 2.0 sites and applications. Look for posts about this topic in the near future.

Back to Afriville.com…
Afriville.com started out as a social networking site similar to MySpace (a place to meet friends, look at photos, give comments, look for events happenings) however it is now more similar to YouTube then MySpace. Most content on the site consists of video and audio that is user generated.

Afriville is self described as “…a place designed to stimulate the African man or woman, through the tools of social communication whether its meeting people, sharing opinions on the forum, starting groups on issues important to you…” While Afriville is still in Beta it plans to expand to other states within Africa and other countries including the US. Some additional features users can expect in the future are a photo sharing and browsing platform, an African stock & share discussion application and an African Blog Aggregator.

Afriville’s mission is most beautifully stated by its creator: “I have a dream, a wish to live to see, a dream of a continent saving itself through the minds and hardwork of its youth. War , poverty and socio-economic conditions has dispersed Africans all around the world. Afriville is the place to reunite all Africans, and REBUILD our beloved continent.”