ictpowerhouse

The BBC is set to get another ten years of public money. Technology is undermining the case for much more after that

2007-01-06T15:32:00.000-08:00

AS A boy growing up in the 1930s in the Midland. Two decades ago the BBC commanded 47% of all television viewing and its rivals, ITV and Channel 4, shared the rest. Today BBC1 and BBC2, its terrestrial channels, account for just 33% of all viewing, and multichannel services (which include BBC3 and BBC4, both digital channels) win 30%. In homes with satellite or cable television, the corporation's share has fallen further: BBC1 and BBC2 together have just 23% of the former and 22% of the latter.

Young people especially are abandoning public-service programmers, according to Ofcom, the communications regulator. In 2001, it says, people between 16 and 24 spent 74% of their viewing time watching channels such as the BBC and Channel 4, but in 2005 only 58% of their time. The BBC has good digital TV channels for young children, CBBC and Cbeebies. But around the age of 12 they begin to trickle away to MTV (a pop channel) and teen dramas such as Channel 4's "Hollyoaks", says Ian Parkinson, a senior executive at Radio 1. The average age of BBC1 and BBC2 watchers is now 53 and 54 respectively-the highest of the five main TV channels.

Poorer, less educated viewers seem to be turning away, too. Serious material suffers most when people move to multi-channel television, says Ofcom, and particularly in poorer households. The BBC's "Correspondent", "Newsnight" and "Horizon", all current-events programmes, are watched by only half as many multichannel homes as by terrestrial-only homes. ITV's "Pop Idol" is watched by only 16% fewer. The drop in "Newsnight" viewing was 17 percentage points greater among poorer viewers than among richer ones. Soap operas, light entertainment, daytime TV, sport and lottery programmes attract a much higher proportion of poorer viewers, the corporation notes.

The result, says a BBC executive, is that "we are over-serving white middle-class 55-year-olds." The BBC is trying to do something to widen its audience. In 2002, for example, realising that it was hardly reaching young black people, it launched a digital radio station called 1Xtra, modelled on pirate radio.

Some say the BBC fails to attract younger viewers because it takes too few risks. Channel 4, another public-service broadcaster, has a bit more youth appeal: the average age of its viewers is a sprightly 45. Kevin Lygo, its director of television, says that whereas Channel 4 is rebellious and questioning, many BBC television programmes are "full of integrity and truthfulness but also safe, respectful, backward-looking and all about heritage". Many of the BBC's new and forthcoming offerings, such as "Doctor Who", "Robin Hood" and "Sherlock Holmes", are all "exhumed from the distant past".

But good, innovative ideas have not entirely departed. Popular "Little Britain" is an offbeat collection of grotesque comic sketches, and "The Office", a bone-dry comedy about a paper-supply company in Slough, has been copied by broadcasters in America, France, Canada and Germany.

The BBC has long tried to tack between high-minded and populist programming in an effort to get people to watch improving stuff that they would not have encountered otherwise. But technology, which increases consumer choice, is complicating this task. "Hammocking"-scheduling worthy material between smash hits-is a familiar BBC technique. A recent adaptation of "Bleak House", for example, was scheduled straight after "EastEnders", a popular soap opera. But remote controls and video recorders have made hammocking less effective, says Jana Bennett, head of BBC television. "Now you can't even bring the horse to water unless it's really appealing." In future Miss Bennett will try blitzing people with the same content over time across several channels and the BBC's website. The BBC is also trying harder to conceal public-service themes beneath entertainment. Its approach to ethnic minorities used to be a boring talk-show about discrimination late at night, says Simon Terrington, founding director of Human Capital, a media-consulting firm. Now it is cleverer, he says, with programmes such as "The Apprentice". Aspiring entrepreneurs in this reality show get knocked out week by week; many of the most successful contestants are from ethnic minorities.

Making the most of it If new technology and increased consumer choice are making life harder for the BBC, they also offer tremendous opportunities. The corporation already has ten digital channels and a website with 6m pages. Now it says that it needs to shift away from 24-hour schedules towards "on-demand" television-making everything it has ever produced available on the internet, much of it free-or risk being left behind. That would be an enormous and costly undertaking. But "if the BBC doesn't compete successfully in on-demand", says Richard Deverell, its controller of children's TV, radio and internet, "it is doomed in the long run." In 2007, provided Ofcom gives the go-ahead, the Beeb will introduce its "iPlayer" service, which will allow viewers to catch up on recent TV programmes they missed. Going on-demand means that the BBC could run on significantly less money. It currently pumps out large quantities of expensive programming around the clock and hopes that licence-fee payers will be at home to watch it. The corporation could waste less by producing a smaller number of programmes on demand and ensuring that licence-fee payers know about them. "We need to stop competing on quantity and spend more on fewer, higher-quality programmes," says Mr Deverell. Mark Thompson, the BBC's director-general, believes that in some genres, such as news, weather and information, on-demand will require more content, but that in other categories, such as drama, it is quite possible that the BBC will indeed spend more on fewer programmes and make them more available.

Exploiting new technology could help the BBC make more money too, especially abroad, where it hopes in the long run to gain millions of new viewers and listeners. The BBC's commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, contributed £145m to BBC coffers last year and has also built up hundreds of millions of pounds of equity in pay-television channels in joint ventures with commercial companies over time. Worldwide now plans a new global network of production studios to allow the BBC to sell programmes made for overseas markets to commercial media firms around the world.

In future the internet will allow the corporation to sell to foreign consumers directly, an even more lucrative proposition. Mr Thompson says the BBC is looking at developing subscription products that could be sold overseas. The BBC's website, too, receives about a billion hits a month from abroad, and Worldwide will soon start making money from overseas users when it introduces an international version with advertising next year. "Ideally the BBC could arrange it so that Johnny Foreigner pays for us all to enjoy high-quality TV and radio at home," says Simon Walker, a former BBC controller of corporate strategy. But the corporation may be ambivalent about how hard it wants to push all this. If it becomes very profitable abroad, people will ask why it needs so much public money at home.

The people's telly
Debate has raged for years over whether the BBC should still be publicly financed, and specifically by a licence fee that is paid by all those with television sets. Many households, after all, now watch and listen to little of its output but almost all pay £131.50 a year for it. The BBC hates the idea of losing its licence fee. Rather than go commercial, its bosses plan to keep fighting for public financing for decades. What are the chances that the government will decide that the BBC can fend for itself, taking away some or all of its public subsidy when the current charter runs out in 2016? The rapid shift to digital TV makes the debate especially pressing. Set-top boxes can tell whether a household has paid for a channel or not. Soon it will be practical and easy for everyone to choose whether or not to subscribe to the BBC, or bits of it. Towards the end of digital switch-over, which will happen between 2008 and 2012, the government will examine other ways to finance the BBC after 2016. The likeliest change is that the television service would become partly or wholly subscription-financed. Radio would take longer to wean off public money because most radio sets now in use do not have the necessary technology.

Ditching the licence fee would be tricky politically: people care about the BBC, and meddling with it can be dangerous. Government-commissioned research released in September found that a majority of licence-fee payers would be prepared to pay more for current services than they do now, and far more for new offerings. One argument for public funding of public-service broadcasting is stronger than ever, says Mr Thompson, and people in the current government tend to agree. Fragmenting audiences make it harder for commercial media firms to invest in expensive, high-quality original content. ITV's advertising revenues are falling rapidly, for instance, and in America NBC, a broadcast network, recently announced that it would stop showing expensive scripted programmes between eight and nine o'clock at night in order to cut costs. Most people agree that the BBC now makes some of the finest television and radio programmes in the world. "The argument for having pooled investment in quality content will prove persistent," says Mr Thompson.
Another argument may be persuasive too. The Beeb is a powerful symbol of British culture at home, where unifying institutions grow ever thinner on the ground, and abroad. The government particularly enjoys the broadcaster's reputation in other countries. "It is probably more important for winning hearts and minds abroad than everything the Foreign Office does," says a minister.

But the BBC is not equally loved by everyone. The rich and the old are keener on it than the poor and the young (see chart), who in effect subsidise the viewing and listening of more prosperous households. The corporation's competitors are not thrilled with it either. After eight decades of living on public money, it already looms large in television, radio and magazines. Its lavishly financed website is making life harder for newspapers online. Regional papers and local radio stations are worrying about the BBC's planned expansion into "ultra-local" television. And the mooted shift to on-demand television particularly bothers commercial rivals such as ITV and BSkyB; they want to offer video-on-demand products on the internet and fear that the market could be stillborn if the BBC sends out thousands of hours of free archive content. The BBC's impact on competitors worries Conservative politicians a great deal. David Cameron, the party's leader, said last May that small internet businesses could get squished like ants by the corporation. He called for new rules to stop it from charging thoughtlessly into new markets. If the Tories were to win the next general election, it just might run into trouble.

But executives at the BBC calculate that the broadcaster would not come high up on any Tory government's agenda, particularly this one's. So the corporation might keep its public funding for another charter period, from 2017 to 2026. "There's a lot of life in the old dog yet," says a broadcasting policymaker. There could be more life still if both politicians and the corporation were to embrace the principle that lies at the heart of technology's impact on the media-consumer choice-and let subscriptions pay for at least some of the BBC's offerings

Credit BBC

Monetary Policy Committee December 18, 2006

2006-12-18T10:53:00.000-08:00

Welcome, members of the Press and Media to todayâ€™s press briefing of the MPC. This is the last press briefing for the year. Let me take this opportunity to first of all extend the Bank of Ghana and the MPCâ€™s appreciation to you all for your partnering role in sustaining this process.
The economy is closing the year with robust GDP growth estimated to be some 6.2 percent. Inflation expectations remain subdued and converging towards the single-digit; and the external payments position has been resilient to the high and volatile oil prices of the past year, with the current account deficit reduced and another overall balance of payments surplus estimated for 2006.
Price developments during the last quarter of 2006 continued to show signs of diminishing inflation expectations. Headline inflation measured by the consumer price index was 10.3 percent for November 2006, the fourth consecutive month of decline in inflation after rising to 11.4 percent in July with the pass-through of increases in crude oil prices on to the domestic market. This is underlined by negative or small monthly increases returning the index back to the level reached in June 2006 and to the path of declining inflation. All the Bankâ€™s indices of core inflation remained flat in November, and all pointed to a downward trend in underlying inflation, well within or close to the single digit zone.
Developments in the real sector show an expanding economy. The Bankâ€™s Composite Index of Economic Activity increased by 3.3 percent in the fourth quarter, and by 11.5 percent in real terms (year-on-year) or above the trend growth of 10.1 percent. All components of the index registered significant increases. The Bankâ€™s survey of Business and Consumer Confidence also shows significant increases in both business and consumer confidence in the economy and prospects for improved macroeconomic conditions in 2007.
Along with the upswing in economic activity, bank credit to the private sector and public institutions increased by 44 percent (Â¢7,211 billion) to Â¢23,780.3 billion in the 12-month to October 2006 compared with an increase of 23 percent (Â¢3,130 billion) to Â¢16,569.5 billion in the corresponding period of 2005.
The private sectorâ€™s share in the increase in credit was 74.3 percent (Â¢5,361 billion). The Services sector absorbed 30 percent, followed by Commerce (17.6 percent), Construction (10.7 percent) and Import trade (6.7 percent). In real terms it increased by 25.7 percent against 13.0 percent in the corresponding period of 2005, the highest in 28 months.
Total banking system assets at the end of October 2006 was Â¢48,353.0 billion (the latest data available), an annual growth of 35.5 percent as against 16.6 percent as at end October 2005.
The quality of banksâ€™ loan portfolio showed significant improvement during the period as the Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) ratio declined from 14.2 percent to 11.0 percent over the 12-month period to October 2006. Similarly, loan loss provision to total loan ratio declined from 12.4 percent to 9.6 percent and NPL net of provisions to capital ratio declined from 6.7 percent to 5.9 percent.
Broad money (M2+) to GDP ratio rose further from 29.0 percent in September to 29.3 percent at the end of October 2006, compared with 27.8 percent in October 2005. Underlying the growth in broad money are significant increases in Time and Savings deposits and foreign currency deposits which grew by 46 and 30 percent at annual rates respectively at the end of October 2006, compared with 28.9 and 6 percent respectively for October 2005.
Provisional data available through November 2006 indicate that on an end period basis reserve money grew by 20.6 percent. This compares with 19.5 percent growth for the same period of 2005.
Preliminary banking data on the implementation of the Government budget for 2006 indicate that:
Total revenue and grants during the year up to November 2006 amounted to Â¢29,300.5 billion, against an end year target of Â¢29,980.7 billion.
About 84.9 percent (Â¢20,969.6 billion) of projected tax revenue was collected at the end of November 2006. This compares with 81.9 percent for the same period of 2005.
Non-tax revenue (excluding grants, HIPC assistance, MDRI resources) amounted to Â¢593.5 billion, against an end year target of Â¢711.0 billion.
Total Government expenditure at the end of November 2006 was Â¢32,528.6 billion, compared with the end year target of Â¢31,415.3 billion, and 35.4 percent above what was recorded for the same period in 2005. This resulted in a net domestic borrowing of Â¢3,805.9 billion (3.3 percent of GDP), against an end year target of Â¢1,197.9 billion. The large borrowing was driven mainly by delayed realisation of resources programmed under the supplementary budget.
Total government debt instruments outstanding at the end of November 2006 amounted to Â¢19,396 billion (14.1 per cent of GDP). The share of the 91-day and 182-day Treasury Bills declined from 58.1 percent in November 2005 to 34.6 percent in November 2006. The 2-year and 3-year fixed rate notes increased their shares from 12.9 percent to 30.2 percent over the same period. The share of 2-year and 3-year floating notes and bonds also declined from 15.7 percent to 9.8 percent. The strong shift of market preferences for long dated securities became more pronounced in the last half of the year, with the share of these securities increasing by 4 percentage points from September to November 2006 and a lengthening of the term structure of securities. This trend has been underpinned by a steady decline and realignment of interest rates; downward shift in the yield curve in line with generally declining inflation expectations.
The benchmark 91-day Treasury bill rate remained unchanged at 10.5 percent between September and November 2006. Compared with the corresponding period of 2005, the rate dropped by 200 basis points.
In the interbank market, the Bank of Ghana instruments, the 14-day bill dropped by 7 basis points to 10.25 percent, while the 2-month bill stood at 12.75 percent in November 2006.
The yields on the medium-term Government instruments also declined, with the yield on the two-year fixed rate note declining from 15.8 percent in September 2006 to 15.7 percent as at November 2006.
The average base and lending rates quotations of commercial banks declined by 25 basis and 175 basis points to 21.00 per cent and 24.25 percent between June and November 2006.
The external sector has been marked by strong growth of exports and imports of goods and services, with the current account deficit projected to narrow in 2006. Preliminary data for January to October 2006 indicate that merchandise exports increased by 44.9 percent over the same period in 2005. For the first time exports of cocoa and gold, each exceeded the US$1.0 billion mark.
Cocoa exports (beans and products) amounted to US$1,115.4 million of which cocoa products amounted to US$112.4 million, a total increase of US$325.41 million over the same period in 2005, mainly because of a large 2005/2006 cocoa crop, as realised prices averaged some 6 percent lower.
Gold exports amounted to US$1,043.4 million compared with US$758.1 million for the same period in 2005, and benefiting from higher prices.
All other exports (excluding cocoa, gold and timber) amounted to US$1,089.83 million, an increase of 62 percent over what was recorded for the same period in 2005.
Strong domestic demand reflected in strong import growth. Total imports for the period January to October 2006 amounted to US$5,414.80 million. This represents an increase of 27.2percent compared with a total import bill of US$4,255.76 million for the same period in 2005. Non-oil imports amounted to US$4,202.86 million, an increase of 23.0 percent over the US$3,416.30 million recorded for the same period in 2005.

Consumption goods imports are estimated at US$966.3 million, an increase of 17 percent over the previous yearâ€™s level (US$826.1 million).
Capital goods imports amounted to US$873.5 million, representing 22 percent increase over the amount for the same period in 2005.
Intermediate goods imports are estimated to be US$3,213.0 million, compared with US$2,404.0 million in 2005. Of these amounts, Fuel and lubricants accounted for US$1,164.47 million and US$839.48 in 2006 and 2005 respectively, with the increase reflecting mostly the rise oil prices on the international market.
These developments resulted in a trade deficit of US$1,871.56 million for the period up to October 2006. However, the current account turned in a reduced deficit of US$45.6 million, compared with a deficit of US$581.7 million recorded in 2005. The overall balance of payments recorded a deficit of US$111.04 million, compared with a deficit of US$195.29 million recorded for the corresponding period of 2005. Provisional estimates indicate an overall surplus of US$406.73 million for the year, bolstered by the seasonal inflows of cocoa proceeds.
Private inward transfers â€“ attributable to NGOs, Embassies, Service Providers, Individuals etc. and channelled through the banks and finance companies for January to October 2006 amounted to US$4.79 billion, 25.9 percent increase over those recorded for the corresponding period of 2005. Of the total transfers in the period US$1.22 billion (25.4 percent) accrued to individuals, compared with 30.6 percent over the same period in 2005.
The foreign exchange market saw increased volume of activity during the year, and reduced volatility in the market.
Purchases and sales of foreign exchange by banks and forex bureaux in the eleven-month period to November 2006 amounted to US$6.01 billion, an increase of 13.9 percent over the same period in 2005. The volume of US dollar transactions dominated the market, for example accounting for some 80.4 percent in the month of November, (83.6 per cent in October) with the Pound Sterling at 7.3 percent (8.8 per cent) and the Euro at 12.3 percent (7.4 per cent).
The cedi remained relatively stable against the US dollar during the year. Cumulatively, the cedi depreciated against the dollar by 1.1 percent. It depreciated much more against the Euro by 12.2 percent and the Pound Sterling by 14.2 percent for the period January to November 2006. This compares with a depreciation of 0.6 percent against the US dollar and appreciations of 14.3 percent and 10.5 percent respectively against the Euro and the Pound Sterling in the same period a year earlier. In trade weighted terms, the cedi appreciated cumulatively by 1.1 percent for the period January to October 2006 and by 5.2 percent in foreign exchange weighted terms.
Gross international reserves increased by US$324.33 million to US$2,107.02 million at the end of October 2006, exceeding the US$2 billion mark for the first time. This is enough to cover 3.5 months of imports of goods and services.
The indicators of economic activity and business and consumer confidence are robust. GDP growth has been estimated at 6.2 per cent and the composite indicators of economic activity rose above the trend growth rate of 10.0 per cent. Inflation expectations remain subdued, with core inflation measures within the single digits range. And, the cedi has remained relatively stable on the foreign exchange market.
The effects of high and volatile oil price increases have been contained, and underpinned by strong fundamentals including a reduction in the domestic public/GDP and external debt ratios.

The external payments position is robust with a reduced current account deficit in 2006 and further build-up of gross international reserves.

The financial sector is well capitalized, liquid, profitable and recording strong asset growth, with improving portfolio quality in a competitive and stable financial market.

Looking ahead, the prospects are for the continuation of the current macroeconomic performance with improved prospects. The re-denomination of the cedi potentially provides efficiency gains and should underscore policy commitment to macro-stability. The downside risks associated with oil prices remain but appear diminished and seem well balanced and neutral for prices at the current range of US$60-65 per barrel. The undercurrents of demands for appropriate wage and living conditions and cost measures from load-shedding and energy sector would need to be managed to preserve competitiveness and minimize output loss.

The overall stance of the 2007 Government budget while geared to sustaining the current pace of GDP growth, envisages reduction in the public domestic/GDP ratio thus maintaining the fiscal anchor for stability that would support continued progress towards low and stable inflation and growth.

In the circumstances, the Monetary Policy Committee has decided to reduce the Prime Rate from 14.5 percent to 12.5 percent.
Thank you for your attention.

Presented by the Governor of Bank of Ghana Paul Acquah

Monetary Policy Committee brief the Ghanaian Media on the state of the Economy by the close of the year 2006

2006-12-18T10:48:00.000-08:00

Mobiles hope to be 'smart wallet'

2006-12-18T10:41:00.000-08:00

Mobile phones are closer to becoming smart wallets, following agreement among mobile operators on an approach to near field communications (NFC).
NFC is a short-range wireless technology like RFID tags, which are used to track stock by retailers. The tags inside phones could have personal information stored in them and so could act as car keys, money, tickets and travel cards.

Mobile firms representing 40% of the global mobile market back NFC. Alex Sinclair, chief technology officer of the GSM Association, which represents the mobile industry, said: "Interoperability and standardisation are the fundamental requirements for mobile market success. "NFC opens up a wide range of possibilities and we are committed to ensuring the mobile industry works together to realise its potential."

Two elements

There are two elements to NFC technology, which is sometimes called "contactless" applications - a tag, which is inside the phone and can store data and transmit it wirelessly, and a reader, which can access the information stored on tags. A mobile equipped with NFC technology could, for example, buy a concert ticket over the phone which would then hold those details, together with the details of the phone user, on the tag inside the handset. An RFID device at the concert would then "read" the concert ticket details on the tag when the phone is passed close to it.

NFC technology could also be used to exchange data between phones, such as photos and music. Mobile phones are seen as powerful tools for NFC technology because they are able to download new pieces of information - from topping up a travel card, to new songs, ticket information and electronic keycard data etc.

'Sensible' move Mike Roberts, principal analyst for Informa Telecoms and Mobile, said the move was a sensible one for mobile operators.
"Operators need to boost mobile voice revenues and need to ensure the mobile phone remains important to people. "This is a significant step: NFC is a good technology because it fits into mobile phones very readily. "It is low power and low cost. The only thing the mobie industry has to do is find something useful to do with the technology."

No timescale for the development of NFC technology has been given. Fourteen mobile network operators are working together to develop NFC applications. They are Bouygues Telecom, China Mobile, Cingular Wireless, KPN, Mobilkom Austria, Orange, SFR, SK Telecom, Telefonica Móviles España, Telenor, TeliaSonera, TIM, Vodafone and 3. The 14 firms are part of the GSM Association, which represents 700 mobile operators around the world. * The number of people in the UK using their mobiles to access the internet is growing, the Mobile data association has reported.

A total of 40.7m users were recorded as having used their phones for downloads and browsing the mobile internet in the UK during the third quarter of 2006. The total number of users recorded in July was 13m, which had increased to 14m by September.

Story from BBC NEWS:

Onetouch Brings Ogo, the First Mobile Data Service for the Masses to Ghana

2006-12-06T06:38:00.000-08:00

Onetouch, one of the leading mobile operators in Ghana , has announced today
that it plans to bring a revolutionary mobile data service for the masses
to Ghana . Based on the Ogo platform by IXI Mobile, Onetouch, will make the
Ogo device and associated services available in Ghana , mainly focusing on
young adults, with services such as mobile e-mail, mobile Instant
messaging, RSS, and Web Browsing.
"We recognized a significant need in the market which is not served by
any other offering today," said Mr. Philip Sowah, Chief Executive at
Onetouch. "Practically all mobile data services available in the market are
focused on the elite enterprise market, leaving the mass market completely
underserved. We believe the mass market wants mobile data access, and the
Ogo end to end solution is a wonderful solution for that market," said Mr.
Sowah."Bringing a mass market mobile data product to the market was not only
about price. Usability and functionality were just as important," Mr. Sowah
continued. "We searched for an offering that would be affordable, without
compromising the rich experience expected by users who are accustomed to
the online experience of email, instant messaging, RSS, and other
applications."
"The Ogo device, coupled with the hosted services we provide gives
innovative operators such as Onetouch the ability to bring mobile data to
the masses with ease, and at a price point that makes it a mass market
play," said Amit Haller, President and CEO of IXI Mobile, the maker of the
Ogo device and provider of the hosted services associated with it. "We
believe mobile data services geared towards the mass market is a huge,
completely untapped opportunity for the operators, which was the guiding
principle behind creating the Ogo end-to end solution that includes the Ogo
device and the hosted back end data services that eliminate the need for a
large infrastructure investment on the part of the carrier."
Ogo devices deliver a true on-the-go mobile messaging experience with
their large screen, QWERTY keyboard, easy-to-use interface and clamshell
design. The offering in Ghana includes the following services: MSN Instant
Messaging, email, contact book, calendar, Web browser, GSM voice, and SMS.
About Onetouch Onetouch, the mobile division of Ghana Telecom, is headquartered in
Accra, Ghana. Onetouch has enjoyed significant subscriber growth over the
last 12 months and has expanded its network coverage throughout most parts
of Ghana . Nationwide GPRS services have been launched on their network with
EDGE available in some areas. Onetouch continues to differentiate itself by
providing innovative products and value-added services to their customers.
About IXI Mobile IXI Mobile, Inc. offers solutions that bring innovative, data-centric
mobile devices and services to the mass market. IXI Mobile's Ogo devices
are designed to improve the mobile user experience and increase mobile
voice and data usage. The company provides a turn-key solution to mobile
operators and Internet service providers worldwide to launch and support
Ogo products. IXI Mobile is headquartered in Redwood City , California , and has
research and development facilities in Israel and Romania . IXI Mobile also
maintains regional sales offices. For more information on IXI Mobile,
please visit http://www.ixi. com.
On February 28, 2006, IXI Mobile and Israel Technology Acquisition
Corporation (ITAC) (OTCBB: ISLTU.OB, ISLT.OB, ISLTW.OB) entered into a
definitive agreement pursuant to which a wholly owned subsidiary of ITAC
would merge with and into IXI Mobile, with IXI Mobile surviving the merger
and becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of ITAC. Upon consummation of the
merger, ITAC will change its name to IXI Mobile, Inc. and IXI Mobile will
change its name to IXI Mobile (USA), Inc.
The Ogo family of devices delivers popular applications, including
email, instant messaging, SMS, RSS, voice and Web browsing on optimized,
easy-to-use handheld devices for a true on-the-go mobile messaging
experience. Ogo was launched in the United States by AT&T Wireless (now
Cingular Wireless), Switzerland by Swisscom Mobile , Turkey by e-kolay.net. ,
Germany by 1&1, and Uruguay by ANCEL. More information on Ogo is available
at: http://www.ogo. com.

OPEN ACCESS SAT3

2006-11-06T08:15:00.000-08:00

Since publishing the Open Access EASSy paper @
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/eric/ (you must read it
to understand this paper), I have being challenged on
the viability of Open Access to SAT3 and questioned on
the need to institute the same standrards for both
cables though we all know that SAT3 is already
established and EASSy is yet to be. In this thesis I
make an attempt at upholding the same Open Access
structure and principles of EASSy to SAT3 – this is
possible because both cables lie in the same realm but
the context of their execusion are different. This is
ONLY possible because of the window of opportunity
presented by the end of exclusivity by the historic
operators on SAT3 in April 2007 so I also suggest a
process approach.
For the records, SAT3 was established with an
exclusivity period to recoup investment by the
historic operators and this is due in April 2007 at
which the SAT3 country governments can either entrench
the exclusivity of the historic operators or consider
other mechanisms such as what an proposing. SAT3
stands both as a pillar of hope and despair for the
African continent; hope because it was the first cable
and there is an opportunity for it to significantly
change bandwidth prices based on it’s non-performance,
despair because we may decide to keep things the way
they are currently and continue with the incumbency
and high bandwidth prices.
The reasons for the non-renewal of the exclusivity
range from, the historic operators haven recouped
their investment in the cable at high cost since the
inception of the cable and yet made fiber bandwdith
more expensive than satellite capacity. Secondly we
know that the loan granted by the WorldBank to the
historic operators for their contribution to the SAT3
cable was guaranteed by their respective governments
hence the onus lies with the government after
supporting the private interest of the historic
operators to now consider the public interest of
providing cheap and affordable bandwidth for
socio-economic development.
If the SAT3 goverrnments and regulators collectively
or individually decide to end the exclusivity in April
2007 then the question to me is, what steps should
they take towards Open Accessing SAT3? I don’t hold
monopoly on the steps and process because national and
or regional relationships coupled with on the ground
details must be taken into consideration but I would
proceed to outline what I see as the larger framework
of what is possible in terms of structure, principles
and processes – same as for the EASSy cable. Hopefully
other cables or subsequent ones would adopt or follow
the same strucure, principles and process to have the
desired impact.
For the records again, I applaud the work done by the
Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA @
www.osiwa.org) and other institutions for not only
holding two (2) workshops to discuss the SAT3 issues
but bringing a community of engagement, culture of
awareness of the issues at stake and channelling
internal capacity within the various constituencies ie
governments, regulators, private sector, educational
institutions and Civil Society to understand whatever
decisions they make regarding the cable. My effort in
this paper is to compliment such efforts with an
adoption that considers some elements and layout a
general framework based on the several discussions and
engagements.
Declaring SAT3 an “essential facility” would mean that
it holds much in the public interest so must be
treated with the public good as primary and other
consideration as secondary. Private consideration
would be first on the secondary ladder because that is
important for the running of the public entity. Am not
for once suggesting a move from an extreme private
position to an extreme public consideration, but
rather my suggestion is to use minimal public holding
as a temporal measure to move from an exteme private
interest to a balance between the private and public
consideration. Open Access is about balance and
consideration of the various interests.
The governments holding the essential facility in
trust after declaring it so is only a temporary
measure which must be seeded quickly to a
multi-stakeholder institution which would work in the
interest of the various constituency and ensure that
there is a clear reflection of equity. Regulatory and
public policy must recognise the establishment of the
essenttial facility which in this case would be
“infrastructure provider” – providing infrastructure
for the other service providers wthin the value chain.
In some cases the regulatory and public policy
environment must create the structural change from a
vertical to a horizontal layering communication system
and that enables the change process. Whatever the case
may be, the first fundamental step is the re-alignment
of the communication paradigm where there is a
distinction between infrastructure and services. This
means a move from the vertical to the horizontal
communication system. The essential facility in this
case, the SAT3 country segment would constitute the
infrastructure provider which DOES NOT provide
services on the value chain. Ghana, Nigeria, South
Africa and Senegal has hinted that they are going to
adopt this approach post April 2007. In the case of
Ghana, the government has also contracted the Chinese
to finalise the nationwide fiber network which was
owned by the Volta River Authority called Voltacom.
Voltacom would be merged with the SAT3 country segment
to form an “infrastructure provider” which would
provider international and national bandwidth
infrastructure.
Owership of the infrastructure provider is the next
consideration, enjoining a multi-stakeholder ownership
model ensures that there is balance of power, money
and interest. It is in the interest of the government
to ensure that this happens so that they are not
labeled as “corrupting” the entity. The mechanism is
for the government through an initial private and or
public offering to invite the private sector,
educational institutions, civil society, investors,
PTTs and the consumer to own a part of this entity
through a transparent and neutral process. Enlisting
the infrastructure provider on the stock exchange
would ensure that it is subject to the dictates of
that environment ensuring access and commonality on
ownership.SAT3 at this point would have adhered to Open Access
in terms of the structural change below;

Within the structural framework, the cable would have
differentiated “Infrastructure” from “Services” where
Infrastructure is seen more in the “Ownership” realm
whiles Service is seen in “Access to capacity”.
The most distinguishing feature of the Open Access
approach is that, ownership of the infrastructure DOES
NOT GUARANTEE any access (discriminatory or not) to
capacity on the value chain for the provision of
service to the market. The respective country capacity
would be on the money here.

A set of principles would hold for the ownership of
the cable and those principles would be different from
those for access to capacity.Infrastructure ownership principles for the SAT3 cable
would include;The ownership of the cable must be in a public private
partnership involving Government, PTTs, ISPs,
Educational Institutions, Civil Society and Consumers.
A fair distribution of these constituencies from the
member countries in an equal sub-regional distribution
leading up to the Board of Directors of the enterprise
in case a regional approach is adopted like EASSy.
The same set of rules must be established to
identifying the various shareholders from the various
countries in the different constituencies, again this
applies to regional.
For the purposes of this exercise a Special Purpose
Vehicle (SPV) or a legal entity with an African wide
structure and majority Africa ownership should be
considered
The essential facility must have a public interest
combined with a private sector approach in it’s
business model in order to ensure cheap and affordable
bandwidth to the end-user.

Value Chain access to capacity for service delivery
principles are;
The essential facility must sell capacity to all
entities who meet the legal and regulatory
requirements in each country directly and
non-discriminatorily.
Service Providers shall be offered Transport
Infrastructure Layer access to different capacities
depending on their requirements.
End Users shall be free to choose any local Service
Provider connected to the National and or Regional
Network.
The essential facility shall not compete with Service
Providers (its customers) by offering services at the
Service Layers directly to End Users.
All countries must create a regulatory structure that
recognizes the essential facility.
The essential facility shall be formed, owned and
operated in such a way as to facilitate competition
and to foster innovation at the Services Layer, and
where practical and commercially viable at all levels,
with a view to maximizing usage of the network and
benefits to the End Users.

Once these are in place the market structure would
align such that the infrastructure cost which is
almost always duplicated several times by service
providers is consolidated. That reduces the barrier to
uptake on the service side and makes the service
providers focus on services and competition in the
market place for innovation and customer service
delivery at cheaper or affordable cost. Ultimately the
customer benefits and the uptake of ICTs as a sector
and cross sectorial enabler would be enhanced.

This sets out the framework for Open Access as it
relates to the SAT3 cable but I must admit that this
is not the ONLY approach in terms of process but
structurally and principles wise, the above is not far
from wrong. The devil as they say is always in the
details, though.

Credit: Eric M.K Osiakwan

Report: Online News Widely Accepted as Credible

2006-11-04T02:10:00.000-08:00

Credibility. It is hard to define, hard to earn, and even harder to regain once it is lost.For decades, news organizations -- especially newspapers -- have struggled to understand why readers find the media less and less credible. Or why some news organizations, such as cable news networks, have a higher credibility rating than older and more established (and local) news outlets. It is a vexing problem.

The task grew even more complicated eight years ago when the Internet offered the public a whole new, interactive way to obtain news and information. A question that may plague us for the next several decades is, "How do the issues of credibility and reliability play out in the online news environment?"

Media consultant Martha Stone and I have been studying digital journalism credibility for the past year on behalf of the Online News Association. Our report, which was released Jan. 31, is based on more than 50 interviews with industry executives, dozens of case studies, several industry roundtables, and two research surveys. The ONA study, which was funded by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, also outlines strategies that several sites have undertaken to be more open and more transparent with their readership.

We found that the public has largely accepted digital news as an important source of credible news. Thirteen percent of the online public saying that Internet news is their most trusted source of news.

However, the ONA survey also shows that most of the online public surveyed remains neutral on credibility issues surrounding online news.

This lack of strong opinion is where the online news media may have its greatest opportunity. It is a chance to move those neutral views to positive ground. Or, conversely, there is the real danger that the public will be come critical of some practices and become as critical of online news as it is of newspapers.

The acceptance of online news is good news for digital journalists. Although the older, traditional media has been losing the public's trust, online news seems to be enjoying a credibility honeymoon, according to a national survey of 1,000 online consumers and 1,500 media workers conducted for ONA.

Rather than vilifying digital news, the online public has largely accepted it as an important source of credible news. Journalists surveyed expected the public to be much more negative about the credibility of digital news. They also expressed more concerns about professional quality than the online public.

The survey also indicates there appears to be a division of opinion about the credibility of digital news between those who work for traditional media organizations -- newspapers, broadcasting -- and those who work for Web sites. And there is a difference of opinion about credibility between the media workers who took the survey and the online public. Some examples from the report:

Media workers were more likely to have made up their minds about credibility and were more likely to be critical than the online public was. Among the rankings produced by the survey's media respondents, there were five sources (local TV news, local radio stations, other news Web sites, local TV Web sites and local radio Web sites) about which more than 25 percent - and as many as 40 percent - say the source is not credible. By comparison, no more than 12 percent of the public says any particular news source is not credible.
When asked to agree or disagree with the statement: "Online news sites are my/consumers' most trusted sources for news," 13 percent of the online public agreed, 44 percent had no opinion, and 43 percent disagreed. Media respondents predicted that 79 percent of online readers would disagree with the statement.
The report's executive summary puts the gap in perception between media and public this way: ". (the) survey's findings should prompt journalists and the public alike to confront a critical issue: Is there something the media perceives or knows about the ethics and practices of online news organizations or operations that the public does not know? Or are traditional media just being resistant to online news?"

The report also examined the reasons consumers use news Web sites and the most important factors affecting story credibility. Some highlights include:

When it comes to credibility, online readers are more concerned about accuracy than timeliness. In a list of 11 story characteristics affecting credibility, online readers rank "story is up to date" fifth, after accuracy, completeness, fairness and trusted source.
Asked directly if the separation between advertising and editorial content matters to a news source's credibility, the public overwhelmingly (95.9 percent) says "Yes, it matters." But when ONA asked online readers to rank advertising-editorial independence as a variable affecting news credibility, it barely made the list (ninth of 11 attributes, ahead of audio/visual quality and entertainment value).
About 40 percent of the online public are confident they can discriminate between advertising and editorial content, with another 30 percent expressing neutrality or a lack of opinion on the issue. That confidence is positively correlated with a reader's general trust of online news, which increases in time spent online and with the number of times a reader has visited a particular online news site. Familiarity breeds confidence.
The issue of advertising and editorial separation has been a hot discussion topic among online and traditional journalists. The findings about the separation of advertising and editorial content should be reassuring to those site managers who are trying to find new ways of attracting revenue. However, it might be too early to relax about this finding, as poorly labeled content could have a negative affect in the long run.

In addition to the results of its two surveys, the ONA's Digital Journalism Credibility Study presents a broader discussion of the professional experiences and insights. Among the topics covered are:

Who is a journalist? This includes a discussion on journalistic training and experience.
What kinds of challenges to credibility have downsizing, reorganization and retrenchment posed?
What kinds of training or professional perspectives should media workers in online newsrooms be expected to have - practically and ideally? Technical issues have typically taken precedence over ethical concerns when it comes to newsroom training, but that may be changing in online newsrooms.
How are online newsrooms working through the challenges presented by the pressures to produce revenue? The report sites specific ways in which various news organizations are dealing with sponsored content and presents an in-depth discussion of advertising policies and processes.
How are online newsrooms handling the Web's two hallmark characteristics: immediacy and interactivity? While the push to get the story first remains very much a part of the online news industry culture, there's a clear recognition that getting it first is not as important as getting it right. Brand credibility is at stake.
The issue of digital journalism credibility is broad and deep. The ONA study is a first look at many of the issues journalists -- print, broadcast, online -- will need to address if we are to take advantage of this new medium that allows almost instant publishing, unparalleled depth of content, and unique interactivity with readers.

Just as developing online news medium continues to be an exciting challenge, so should the opportunity to secure and increase the medium's credibility with its readers.

By Howard I. Finberg

U.S. Group Reaches Deal to Provide Laptops to All Libyan Schoolchildren

2006-10-14T11:36:00.000-07:00

The government of Libya reached an agreement on Tuesday with One Laptop Per Child, a nonprofit United States group developing an inexpensive, educational laptop computer, with the goal of supplying machines to all 1.2 million Libyan schoolchildren by June 2008.The project, which is intended to supply computers broadly to children in developing nations, was conceived in 2005 by a computer researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Nicholas Negroponte. His goal is to design a wireless-connected laptop that will cost about $100 after the machines go into mass production next year.To date, Mr. Negroponte, the brother of the United States intelligence director, John D. Negroponte, has reached tentative purchase agreements with Brazil, Argentina, Nigeria and Thailand, and has struck a manufacturing deal with Quanta

Computer Inc., a Taiwanese computer maker.
Mr. Negroponte, who was in Tripoli this week to meet with Libyan officials, said he discussed the project extensively with the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, in August.“When I met with Qaddafi, it had all the mystique and trimmings expected: middle of the desert, in a tent, 50 degrees C. etc.,” Mr. Negroponte, who was traveling to Asia on Tuesday, wrote in an e-mail message. “It took him very little time to find O.L.P.C. appealing as an idea.”The idea appealed to the Libyan leader, according to Mr. Negroponte, because it fit into his political agenda of creating a more open Libya and becoming an African leader. The two men also discussed the possibility of Libya’s financing the purchase of laptops for a group of poorer African nations like Chad, Niger and Rwanda.It is possible, Mr. Negroponte said, that Libya will become the first nation in the world where all school-age children are connected to the Internet through educational computers. “The U.S. and Singapore are not even close,” he said.To date, One Laptop Per Child has received mixed support from the American computer industry. Test units currently use a low-power microprocessor manufactured by Advanced Micro Devices. However, both Intel and Microsoft have been publicly skeptical about the idea and have proposed competing low-cost educational computer projects. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January, Bill Gates, Microsoft’s chairman, suggested that the next generation of cellphones might be a better way to reach across the so-called digital divide.Mr. Negroponte said Microsoft refused to sell its Windows software to the project at a price that would make it possible to include in his system. As a result, his laptops will come with the freely available Linux operating system, which is becoming increasingly popular in the developing world.The idea of a laptop for every schoolchild grew out of Mr. Negroponte’s experience in giving children Internet-connected laptops in rural Cambodia. He said the first English word out of the mouths of the Cambodian students was “Google.”Discussions between the One Laptop project and the Libyan government began as part of work being done by the Monitor Group, an international consulting firm co-founded by the economist Michael E. Porter. It is now helping the Libyans develop a national economic plan.

Diplomatic relations between the United States and Libya have warmed recently, since Tripoli settled the Pan Am 103 bombing case and agreed to renounce its pursuit of nuclear weapons. Washington lifted a trade embargo two years ago, and the State Department rescinded Libya’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism last June.
For its $250 million investment, Libya will receive 1.2 million computers, one server per school, a team of technical advisers to help set up the system, satellite internet service and other infrastructure.The first test models will be distributed to the five participating countries companies at the end of this November, according to Mr. Negroponte, and mass production is planned for June or July of 2007.
The computers come with a wireless connection, a built-in video camera, an eight-hour battery and a hand crank for recharging batteries. They will initially be priced below $150, and the price is expected to decline when they are manufactured in large numbers.

Credit:JOHN MARKOFF

NIGERIA AGAIN SWOOP AWARDS AT HIGHWAY AFRICA-06

2006-09-14T05:52:00.000-07:00

Nigeria has this year swoop for the second time the African media
awards on Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) at the 10th HighwayAfrica (HA) conference held in Grahamstown, South Africa, carting away six out of the 22 total awards.It would be recalled that last year, Nigeria got over six awards at HA, especially through the African Information Society Initiative (AISI).The awards which came in two folds included the SABC-Highway Africa Awards forInnovative Use of New Media in Africa and AISI. While the HA awards wereorganised by Journalism Department of Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa in partnership with the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) in recognition and promotion of creative, innovative and appropriate use of new media technology on the continent, AISI was put together by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) based in Ethiopia.Both awards were presented simultaneously at a ceremony well-attended at the Guy Berger Auditorium, Grahamstown, Tuesday night.

Leading the pack in this year’s awards at HA-06 is the Senior Reporter on ICT with Daily Champion Group of Newspapers Lagos-Nigeria and pioneer member of the Highway Africa News Agency (HANA) editorial team, Mr. Remmy Nweke, who took the cap as the HANA Journalist of the Year and was presented with Fujitsu/Siemens laptop and a souvenir.It would be recalled that Mr. Nweke, who has won several internationalmedia awards was nominated as the first Nigerian in the HANA team since 2003 and has been consistent and a boost to the agency, which specialises in ICT information dissemination for the purpose of African renaissance through the media, according to the Executive Director, Highway Africa, Mr. Chris Kabwato.This is coming as 2006 is the first time HA instituted the best staff award to further boost ICT reportage on the continent.Also, five other Nigerians, namely Mr. Don Pedro Aganbi of the ICT Africa on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA network), Mr. Emmanual Okwuke of New Age and Ms.Evelyn Tagbo, as well as Mr. Chima Akwaja of Financial Standards, Mr. Segun Oruame of ITEdge, equally emerged first and second category winners in the AISI awards.However, Cameroon got four out of the total awards for grab at HA-06.

In addition, the SABC-HA award on individual/student category went to David Kezio-Musoke a HANA journalist from Uganda, while the non-profit category was grabbed by Jo’s Toolkit, a website created for student and grassroots media created by two
fourth-year new media students, Carly Riz and Gregor Rohrig, even as the corporate award went to Andnetwork (African News Dimension’s Network).In addition, the SABC-HA award on individual/student category went to David Kezio-Musoke a HANA journalist from Uganda, while the non-profit category was grabbed by Jo’s Toolkit, a website created for student and grassroots media created by two fourth-year new media students, Carly Riz and Gregor Rohrig, even as the corporate award went to
Andnetwork (African News Dimension’s Network).While Nigeria took the first categories in the AISI-GTZ Media awards on promoting the Information Society (IS) on TV, AISI-IDRC award on Reporting on ICT policy and AISI-OSIWA reporting on ICTs and Rural communities, Nigeria also got the second categories AISI-IICD award on local
content and local content applications in that order.

Cameroon, on the other hand, went home with the first prize AISI-GTZ awards on promoting the Information Society, through Ms Marie Noelle Guichi and Ms Bapidi-Mbom Didier Parfait on print and radio respectively. While also Mr Roger Taakam and Ms Jeanine Fankam emerged first in the local content as well as reporting on research and innovation categories in that order.Uganda, nevertheless, got two winners in the first and second categories of AISI-OSIWA best female reporter and reporting on research and innovation through Ms Ester Nakkazi and Mr. David Muwanga respectively.
Other countries that won in the single categories at the AISI awards include Ghanaian Jacob Kofi Mensah who took second category on Promoting IS for print,Kenyan Eric Ombok also on second category on radio.

Equally, Algerian Laid Zaghlami came first in the local content applications, Malian Salif Sanogo came second on promoting IS on Tv, with Mr. Guedegbe Gerard of Benin coming second category in Reporting on ICTs and rural communities and Zambian Timothy Kasonde Kasolo also coming second in Reporting on ICT policy.

Credit: HANA

Intel to support Ghana's ICT drive

2006-08-29T06:05:00.000-07:00

A new enterprise between the Ghana government and multinational computer microchip maker Intel, is expected to bring affordable computer ownership within reach of thousands of Ghana households and small business owners over the next three years.

A range of inexpensive, brand new computers, supplied with access to the internet, will go a long way towards improving the level of computer literacy amongst the nation’s workforce and will help students with home study as well as improving their computing skills in readiness for employment. And to make it easy for salaried workers to buy the package, an installment payment plan will be available through their employer or trade association.

A new partnership between computer re-sellers, internet service providers and banks was inaugurated at a workshop for potential stakeholders and beneficiaries of the project held in Accra. At the workshop, over 150 representatives of employers’ and professional associations, ministries, departments and agencies of government, businesses, church groups, educationalists and the media were introduced to the partnership.

According to Intel representative, Sam Mensah, Ghana is one of a number of developing countries that the company is working with. “We believe this joint venture between us, the government and the other partners is a win-win situation all round with the ultimate benefit going to the computer end user.”

Dr Benjamin Aggrey Ntim, Deputy Minister of Communications pointed out that Ghana’s growth strategy relied heavily on a competent workforce with well developed IT skills. For this to be achieved, it was vital to provide affordable access to internet ready computers both in the home and at work.

Initial target for the project will be substantial employers and umbrella organizations having access to large workforces and with the ability to deduct repayments from their salaried workers or members. Explains Kwami Ahiabenu, II of programme management office “It is important that we achieve economies of scale early in the project lifecycle so that we can move large volumes of internet ready computers into the marketplace quickly. This way, the benefit of home computer ownership at affordable prices will be recognized and passed on by word-of-mouth to friends and co-workers.”

The computers, which are sold under the iADVANCE brand, meet internationally recognized specifications similar to proprietary products which sell on the local marketplace at over twice the retail price. This is achieved by assembling the computers in Ghana from only Intel approved products as well as through bulk buying of their component parts.

The iADVANCE programme, with the theme computer4all, commences immediately and enquiries from employers, associations and businesses wishing to offer pre-financed internet ready computers to staff or members, is welcomed.
Credit:Ministry of Communications

EASSy ownership protocol to be signed in Rwanda

2006-08-25T08:46:00.000-07:00

A protocol creating a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to own and manage the East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy) will be signed at the end of the month.

The African Union has mandated Rwanda to convene a meeting in Kigali on August 29 during which 23 countries from the region will endorse the protocol, paving the way for the construction of the $270 million cable along the eastern coast of Africa – running from Durban in South Africa to Port Sudan.
The project, which currently has 29 partners, is being implemented under the ambit of the New Partnership for African Development (Nepad) initiative.

Rwanda will host the secretariat for the SPV, which was being managed by Telkom Kenya in Nairobi since EASSy was conceived in 2002. The policy and regulatory adviser for Nepad’s e-Africa Commission, Dr Edmund Katiti, confirmed the latest development to The EastAfrican during a regional regulators, operators and policy makers’ meeting in Arusha.

The cable system is expected to provide high quality broadband international connectivity to serve East and Southern Africa.
It will provide the last link to completely encircle Africa by a high capacity fibre optic cable, thereby reducing the region's dependence on satellite communications, which are more expensive and less efficient.

Once completed, the project will reduce bandwidth prices from $150 currently to $25-$30 per mega bit second per month. Negotiations with the suppliers will begin later this month, while construction begins in September. The project will be ready in the first quarter of 2008

By WAIRAGALA WAKABI

File-sharing 'darknet' unveiled

2006-08-21T02:30:00.000-07:00

A "darknet" service that allows users to share music files anonymously on the web has been launched in Sweden. Relakks, as the service is known, allows users to send and receive files through a heavily-encrypted connection. It claims to be the first commercial darknet, a virtual network set up to share files between trusted users.
The service is endorsed by political group the Pirate Party which is running for election in Sweden under a banner to reform the country's copyright laws. "There are many legitimate reasons to want to be completely anonymous on the internet," said Rickard Falkvinge, chairman of the Pirate Party. "The right to exchange information in private is fundamental to the democratic society. Without a safe and convenient way of accessing the internet anonymously, this right is rendered null and void."
Closed groups
A darknet is a cordoned-off, anonymised section of the net where users can meet, chat and swap data. Usually darknets are confined to small tight-knit groups such as hackers who use the secure connections to distribute information and hacking tools.
They have also been used by paedophiles to distribute images of child abuse. Many are invitation-only services where potential members have to upload material to prove themselves to the group before they are granted full access. Similar identity-hiding tools such as Tor are used by net dissidents in countries like China to avoid persecution for their activities on the web. Some previous attempts to launch large scale anonymous networks, such as Nullsoft's Waste program have been unsuccessful. After its release in 2003, Waste was removed from distribution by Nullsoft's parent company AOL.
Unique service
The new system claims to be the world's first commercial darknet. It is provided by Swedish company Relakks and is endorsed by the Pirate Party. It works by giving a user's computer a new IP address, the unique number the machine uses to identify itself and communicate with other machines over the net. IP numbers allocated by your internet service provider (ISP) can be used to trace and identify a specific computer on a network.
Computers using the Relakks system look like they have a Swedish IP address, no matter where they are in the world. Users can then share files, such as music or films, with any other users. In theory anyone monitoring user's online activities will not be able to trace their geographical location. The Pirate Party acknowledge that the service could be used to distribute copyright material or other content such as images of child abuse.
Democratic rights
File sharing and copyright law is a divisive topic in Sweden. Until recently the country was a hotbed of piracy where films, music and software were readily swapped online.
Last year, it outlawed the unauthorised downloading of copyrighted movies and music in an attempt to curb piracy, after criticism from Hollywood. The Pirate Party was launched in part to temper what they say are "aggressive" tactics by the entertainment industry to enforce copyright infringement.
They say techniques such as tracing IP addresses threaten privacy and democracy. The Relakks service, they say, offers people the ability to use the internet "without fear of being monitored or logged". It costs five euro (£3) per month with some of the funds going towards supporting the Pirate Party. However, not everyone is convinced that it is what it claims to be. Many dispute whether Relakks really is the first commercial darknet. Other services like Hamachi and Groove already offer similar services.

Credit :BBC.COM

ictpowerhouse

2006-08-21T02:22:00.000-07:00

ictpowerhouse

Ghana Telcom goes private to improve IT coverage

2006-08-08T10:11:00.000-07:00

The Cabinet has given the approval for the privatisation of Ghana Telecom.In furtherance of this, a transactional adviser is to be appointed to set the process in motion.Professor Mike Oquaye, Communications Minister, disclosed this to journalists during a working and familiarisation visit to the Ghana Telecom headquarters in Accra.He explained that as part of the process, shares of GT will be floated on the stock exchange to raise capital to expand its operations.The government owns 100 per cent shares in Ghanacent shares from the Telecom Malaysian in 2005. However, it is managed by a Norwagian management team under a three year contract which ends this year.
At the “meet the press” series last January, the then sector minister, Albert Kan-Dapaah, said with the settlement of shares owned by the Malaysians, government would offer 51 per cent of its shares to a strategic investor. Professor Oquaye said that the government is also looking forward to the injection of capital into GT by both foreign and local investors.“As soon as a transactional advisor is appointed, the terms, evaluation of capital needed and investment information will be made known for interested people to take advantage of it,” he said.
Last month, the government signed a 30 million dollar agreement with the Chinese government for the establishment of a Ghana back bone facility which is a highway programme to broaden the capacity of infrastructure to provide high speed information technology services, he said.The World Bank has also provided 40 million dollars towards government e-governance programme. Parliament approved the two loan agreements from the Chinese government and the World Bank before going on recess, he added.He said the implementation of these two programmes would improve the service delivery of GT, making Information Technology (IT) very competitive for economic growth.The move is also aimed at improving IT services, core centre outsourcing which has the potential of providing employment opportunities for the youth.

Google's refusal to put ads on edgy stories hurts journalism

2006-08-08T09:31:00.000-07:00

Google has entered that rarefied tier of corporations whose services or products are indispensable to American life. Its search engine is an essential tool for Internet users, and the ingenious way it matches advertisements to the contents of any given search has transformed the world of marketing. The company's second main product is AdSense, a service whereby it posts ads on thousands of Web sites and blogs in a revenue-sharing arrangement that finances much of the online media industry. But as more and more media outlets come to depend on Google, one of its key policies is quietly, systematically punishing ambitious journalism all over the Web. If this trend continues, Google's power and ubiquity could inadvertently cripple an independent press in the Internet era. The genius of Google lies in its capacity to pair advertising with similarly themed editorial content. This technique is revolutionizing the very nature of advertising, as businesses exercise more control than ever over the contexts in which their messages appear. Hardware stores, for example, can now ensure that their ads are placed next to stories about home improvement. But businesses also want to control what they don't appear next to — automakers are displeased when their ads appear next to stories about traffic accidents. In response, in 2003, Google developed "sensitivity filters" to periodically scan the Web sites of its partners in search of violence, mature content, or other unacceptable material. "They detect sensitive content that we probably don't want to be showing advertising beside, and show public service announcements instead," says Shuman Ghosemajumder, Google's business product manager for trust and safety. Unfortunately, when Google withholds advertising it also withholds the accompanying revenue, cutting off money whenever Web sites publish stories it deems too violent or tragic. Regardless of how important a story may be, the company's algorithm pulls its advertising whenever it detects too much carnage. Asked if Google would display ads next to stories about the recent Israeli massacre of Lebanese children, for example, Ghosemajumder says, "That's an example of something that is very difficult to find sensitive advertising [for]." The larger Google gets, and the more indispensable it becomes to news-related Web sites, the bigger this problem will become. Earlier this year, Salon signed a small advertising contract with Google, and employees quickly discovered that whenever a story dealt with sex too explicitly, the search engine would automatically pull its ads. Salon ran stories about a Senate hearing on the effects of pornography, a study on the effect of sex on stress levels, and British attitudes toward rape victims; Google pulled its ads for each of these articles. "What we found in working with Google was that because some of our content violated its 'family-safe policy,' as a result we had to work with other partners such as Yahoo," says Kathryn Surso, Salon's vice president of business development. Even individual bloggers have encountered this problem. Alameda resident Bob Mendelsohn supplements his earnings from video editing and audio production with revenue from AdSense ads on his blogs, including one that profiles ski instructors. Two months ago, Mendelsohn noticed that Google had replaced one of its ads with a public service announcement. "They all had ads, but one just kept showing Katrina ads," he says. "I couldn't figure out why." After reviewing the profile, he guessed that some of the words he used — teenager, husband, bachelor — could be misread as part of a porn story. "I pulled a few words out, and the next day I had ads," he says. On May 16, a writer for the blog SilflayHraka.com posted a message complaining about a short-lived Sony copy protection scheme that surreptitiously installed spyware on its customers' computers, with the headline "Have you boycotted Sony products yet?" Google replaced its ads with a public service announcement and canceled all ad revenue for the page. The next day, the author, who goes by the name of Kehaar, wrote a second post complaining about Google's response. "I know we get a little rowdy over here at Silflay Hraka, but I didn't think we put up anything too objectionable," the blogger wrote, adding that he or she might consider switching ad networks. Few bloggers rely on ad revenue to pay their bills, and Salon's advertising base is sufficiently diversified that dropping the occasional Google ad doesn't hurt it. But for smaller Web news outfits, losing Google revenue is much more serious. According to the publisher of a prominent news Web site who agreed to speak only if granted anonymity, his company recently signed a premium Google advertising contract that now accounts for a third of his site's revenue. A few months ago, his Web site ran a series of stories about a major bombing in Iraq. Within hours, he says, Google's ads vanished from his home page, and so did all the revenue they generated. "They said we had the word 'kill' on our site, and that killed the ads," the publisher said. "I wrote them and said that would be very difficult for a news site, which would often use the word 'kill.' They said, 'Those are the rules.'" On July 7, the Web site linked to a story from The New York Times about racist groups and skinheads joining the army. Once again, the publisher claims, Google wiped out his ads. As near as he can tell, the use of the word "skinhead" must have run afoul of Google's ban on Web sites that publish racist content. In both cases, the ads vanished for several weeks. The publisher estimates that his company lost at least $7,000 while waiting for Google to reevaluate his content again and bring back the ads. When the publisher contacted Google and asked for explicit guidelines about what constitutes illicit content, company representatives refused. "I asked them for a set of keywords, and they wouldn't give me one," he says. "I don't know what the words are; we just have to approach it by toning down the language in our articles. ... It's just ridiculous. I don't think the [advertisers] are going to have a problem with us reporting the news. ... But they're Google, and we're a small site. So we'll have to conform to their regulations if we want their money." Ghosemajumder says Google constantly refines its method of matching stories to advertisers, whittling down the number of topics that would kill ad revenue, and adds that publishers should always alert the company when they think an ad has been inappropriately pulled. But he refuses to offer a list of forbidden words, claiming that Google's vetting procedure is much more complicated: "We're not trying to create very specific rules so much as we're trying to determine, 'What is the topic of a particular story such that viewers would have a negative reaction?'" In the end, he acknowledges, some stories may be too unpleasant to be paired with paying advertisers. As the Internet becomes more important for newspapers, and publishers from The New York Times to Village Voice Media look to Google for scarce online revenues, serious journalism about international conflict, crime, or any of the less-pleasant aspects of human nature could find itself gasping for support. If stories about the Arab-Israeli conflict, the occupation of Iraq, or the genocide in Darfur are destined to appear without advertising, editors and publishers may conclude they can no longer afford to cover the world's most important stories. In an era of targeted, contextual advertising, what will happen to the stories no sponsor wants to touch?

Credi:Penplusbytes

How Ghanaians Shared in the World Cup Fan

2006-06-28T19:51:00.000-07:00

Ghanaians home and abroad couldnot hide their joy when they witnessed their national team the BLACK STARS humilate two world acclaimed best football nations in Germany.The excitement before and after the BLACK STARS matches with their opponents were unbelievable.Yours truely, stormed some parts of the capital city,Accra to give you a sence of what happened as Ghanaians showed their patriotism by branding every part of their body with the colours national flag,others also offered to the public free outdoor broadcast of the matches on gaints screens.

How Ghanaians Shared in the World Cup Fan

2006-06-28T19:45:00.000-07:00

Ghanaians home and abroad couldnot hide their joy when they witnessed their national team the BLACK STARS humilate two world acclaimed best football nations in Germany.The excitement before and after the BLACK STARS matches with their opponents were unbelievable.Yours truely, stormed some parts of the capital city,Accra to give you a sence of what happened as Ghanaians showed their patriotism by branding every part of their body with the colours national flag,while others also offered to the public free outdoor broadcast of the matches on gaints screens.

How to Make Your Web Site More Conversational

2006-06-28T18:51:00.000-07:00

Techniques for getting your audience to speak up more, to contribute more of their thoughts and knowledge to the public conversation, and to enter the mindset that the media they consume is not just about absorbing what's published for their benefit, but also for being the venue for news, information and opinion that people produce themselves.
By Steve Outing
"News is a conversation."
That phrase -- I'm not absolutely certain who coined it, but I'm pretty sure it originated with Jeff Jarvis a few years ago -- drives much of media thinking these days. It's certainly a mantra for me.What it means, of course, is that the news story when completed no longer ends with publication. When a journalist's work lands on a webpage, it's often (or at least should be) the start of an ongoing conversation -- between journalist and readers, and between readers themselves. The Internet enables the conversation, and 21st-Century news consumers are becoming used to the idea that their voices now can be spread far and wide -- just like the voices of professional journalists."News is a conversation" also applies to what many of us call "citizen journalism" or "participatory media." That is, non-journalists -- the public -- can easily get their own thoughts and reporting published, often by the old-media brands that now are inviting anyone to join the public conversation under their brand names.So, let's assume, for the sake of this column, that you want to truly live the "news is a conversation" ethic. You want your news organization's online operations to be more participatory, and for your audience to engage in the conversation much more than they do now.In this column, we'll examine techniques for getting your audience to speak up more, to contribute more of their thoughts and knowledge to the public conversation, and to enter the mindset that the media they consume is not just about absorbing what's published for their benefit, but also for being the venue for news, information and opinion that people produce themselves.

Step 1: Encourage more and better commentsLet's start with the most obvious step: Encouraging readers of staff-produced news articles and columns to post their thoughts as comments that become attached to the professional content.(A good many news websites haven't even got this right yet. Indeed, even the website that publishes this column doesn't yet support reader comments to this column. But today's online news consumers are used to talking back and asking questions, so let them. It's well overdue if you're not letting people comment freely on what you publish.)I don't know about you, but for my own writing I love to get reader comments. If I write something that gets no reaction in the user comments section, I feel as though I've probably not done a good job. If I write a piece that gets 10 comments -- and nine of them are critical of what I've said -- that still feels like success. I'd rather be criticized than ignored. I've gotten people thinking and a conversation going.

Yeah!Here are a few techniques that can increase the amount of reader feedback you get:
Specifically ask for user comments in the story. Get your writers in the habit of posing questions at the end of a story, or asking readers to share their experiences or knowledge about the topic. This can be interjected in the middle of an article or column, too, with a reference and/or link to the Comments feature at the bottom of the text. "Conversational media" expert Amy Gahran says that when she posts a question that directly solicits feedback, her work gets more comments. "I guess people need that nudge," she says.Ask for feedback in the print edition, too. Don't restrict the conversational encouragement to the website. Encourage your writers to include calls for comments and feedback in their print-edition stories (assuming you have a print edition). Tell the dead-tree readers that they can voice their opinions on the news website -- and give them a specific URL (website address) that takes them straight to a comment form or forum page.Allow anonymous comments, but encourage people to register first; screen anonymous comments. This recommendation no doubt will be controversial, but I think that requirements to register in order to leave an article comment discourage the conversation. (Here's a case study from Topix.net that explains why I think that.) If you require readers of an article to register before leaving a comment, you'll lose a significant amount of reader feedback. I suggest that you urge people to register, but don't prevent them from posting a comment if they don't want to. Let comments from registered users go to the webpage automatically, but screen anonymous comments before they're published. This will prevent the crazy forum free-for-all that has been seen with news sites that allow anonymous comments.

Create a "subscribe" feature for each story.
This technique involves allowing readers to receive e-mail alerts whenever someone adds a comment to a story. If the story really is meant as a conversation and doesn't end with publication, then readers who are truly interested in the topic will want to know what others have to say. This allows them to subscribe to the follow-up "conversation."Auto-subscribe readers who leave comments to follow-up comments. If a reader leaves a comment on a story, then they should be alerted whenever someone else comes along and leaves another comment (which can include the original author responding). I suggest setting up a system where the default when leaving a comment is to receive follow-up e-mail notifications of later comment submissions. If the commenter doesn't want that, he/she can turn off this feature.Enhance your comment feature to allow photos, video. Most "Leave a Comment" features on websites restrict the reader feedback to text. But go beyond that. Allow commenters to attach photos or even videos. Depending on the topic, this can be a powerful incentive for people to leave comments. Say your garden writer has done a story about patio gardening; the writer can urge readers to not only comment on the article but also include a photo of their patio gardens.Add photos of registered readers to comments, and link to their profile pages. Another nice technique is to make the person who leaves a comment less anonymous. Assuming that a registered user is leaving a comment on an article, attach a thumbnail image of the person pulled from his/her user profile. And, of course, link back to that person's profile page, which can include not only whatever personal information the reader chooses to disclose publicly, but also include links to other comments or submissions made to your website previously.

The power of user profiles
This gets us into the territory of media websites getting into the social networking space. What I mean is that a website invites its users to create profiles (when they register with the site) and enter information about themselves -- including a photo or photos. The registered users should be able to control the content of their profiles, making visible only that information that they're willing to share publicly.With a personal profile attached to a registered website user's account, when that person leaves a comment on an article (or submits some original content to be published on the site), the user-profile information can be seen by others who read the person's comments. And the profile should have a record of all of the person's submissions to the website, whether comments about articles or other content, or original content submissions.Such a system supports the notion of a website's users interacting with each other. Through user comments, for example, website users may discover other people who share their interests. Just as young people make connections on sites like MySpace and Facebook, user profiles and social networking can facilitate conversation between a media site's users.An example of this approach applied to a newspaper website is Bakersfield.com, the website of the Bakersfield Californian. Dan Pacheco, senior manager for digital products, and his online team have experimented with user profiles and social networking for the year or so on Bakotopia, a youth-oriented online community and free-classifieds website serving Bakersfield. In the last week, the technology to support this was moved over to Bakersfield.com, which is the main news website published by the Californian.The idea, Pacheco says, is to create a more interactive online community, where members are participating in a two-way conversation more so than in the past. Users create their own persona (which may be their own name, or a nickname/screen name) and interact on the website with the paper's journalists and other online users. Users also are being encouraged to create their own blogs which are hosted on Bakersfield.com.Pacheco expects that over time, people will begin to realize that to stand out in this online community, they need to get a personal profile on the site -- and thus truly become an active part of the community.

Encouraging citizen media
The other major element in embracing the "news is a conversation" way of publishing is so-called "citizen journalism" or "citJ." Many news publishers, of course, are inviting members of their communities to use their websites to publish community news and blogs, and express opinions -- all under the news company's brand.This treads on an area I've covered in the past, so I'll first refer you to an extensive article I wrote for the website of the Poynter Institute last year, when I worked there: "The 11 Layers of Citizen Journalism." Many of the ideas I floated in that article still apply.Beyond the ideas mentioned in that Poynter essay, what else can news operations do to encourage more submissions under the name of "citizen journalism"? Here are just a few:Hit the streets (and the auditoriums). Some citJ practitioners think that the key to drumming up consumer-generated news is to simply get out in the community and educate people about citJ. That's the approach being taken by Backfence.com, an independent, venture capital-backed network of citJ websites serving communities surrounding metro areas.Mark Loundy, who was hired recently to head up Backfence's San Francisco Bay Area websites (first serving Palo Alto, then expanding to other Bay Area communities), says that the principal means of encouraging people to submit their micro-local news is direct, in-person outreach by the staff to community groups. A new community marketing manager will be spending lots of time giving presentations -- to chambers of commerce, parent-teacher organizations, etc. -- explaining what Backfence is about and why it's a good thing for people to use the company's sites to share news and information that's not covered by conventional local news media."We're doing this the old-fashioned way," Loundy says, "with shoe leather."

Offer enticements.
That in-person approach may work when you have a small geographic area to work with, but it's unrealistic if your citizen-media initiative is topic-focused. Then you're looking at primarily an online and print campaign to encourage user-generated content.An idea I'm fond of is offering incentives and prizes. One approach is simply to pay for submissions. It's as though your citizen contributors are freelancers, and you're paying them. Mind, you don't have to pay much. A fee for a report submitted by a citizen user might be only, say, $5. But some citJ-oriented sites have discovered that even a small fee can be a powerful psychological incentive for non-journalists to contribute stories and photographs. Korea's Ohmynews.com is the classic example of this phenomenon.Obviously, for such an approach, there needs to be some editing involved. Citizen submissions that earn the small fee must be vetted by editors; you must make it clear that you pay only for competent contributions.With my own company, which is developing a network of citizen media-based websites covering various adventure and participant sports (like mountain biking, our first), we're running best-content contests to try to encourage not only more submissions, but also quality submissions from users. If someone wants to win a prize, then obviously they need to submit for consideration a good article, photo or video. Ergo, content on the site is of decent quality (in theory).The jury's still out on our experiment, but early signs are positive. Obviously, the notion of contests doesn't fit every topic. While it works for something like biking, as in my case, contests are probably less appropriate if a site is, say, trying to encourage citizen submissions of opinion essays about a ballot issue. But for sports and other less "serious" topics, I see nothing wrong with using contests to promote citizen-generated content.

Don't fret over technology
One last point to consider in encouraging citizen news submissions is not to get hung up on technology. Bakersfield.com's Pacheco, who has built some sophisticated technology to promote online community interaction and collecting citizen content (and his company is now selling it to other publishers), says that for a news company just starting to change its culture and encourage citizen participation, simple techniques can be used before sophisticated technology needs to be put in place.Just start experimenting in simple ways, advises Pacheco. "Start to build a culture" around encouraging citizen content and participation, and focus on the human side of getting your staff to break out of the old we-publish-and-you-read box. That can mean something as simple as having reporters in their own writing begin to encourage and solicit citizen submissions, but accepting the user-generated content via e-mail instead of a more sophisticated system."The human side of this is way more difficult than the technology side," he says.And while that will get you started in the right direction when it comes to citizen content, when you are ready to focus on the technology, do make it easy for people to share content with you in multiple ways. E-mail submissions are fine. So are simple-to-use Web forms. But mobile devices and phones also are becoming more sophisticated, and more and more people are becoming comfortable with using them for more than voice calls. So for the future, figure out how to make it easy for them to share their news and information with your news organization via their phones.

Convinced yet?
Are you still not convinced that your news organization should make a big fuss and try to attract user content? I'll close by pointing out that increasingly, citizen content is proving to be as valuable at times as that produced by professional journalists. Obviously that was the case in last year's London subway terrorist bombings, with photos and videos coming from people who experienced the blasts and aftermath underground. You should be encouraging this more and more.But also, we increasingly see on the Web storie
s by professional journalists that attract extensive comment threads after publication. At times, these active comment threads extend and expand the original story. With the user commentary and additional information, the original story would be less complete and less compelling. Dont' discount citizen power.
Credit.
Mr. Steve OutingFounder & publisherEnthusiast Group
steve@enthusiastgroup.com
View Bio
Steve Outing is founder & editor of Enthusiast Group LLC, which publishes a network of citizen-media-driven websites about adventure sports and activities. He is also an interactive media columnist for Editor and Publisher Online. From 2001 to early 2006, Steve was a senior editor at the Poynter Institute. He maintains a blog at steveouting.com

WHAT IS TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER? PART 1

2006-06-19T12:46:00.000-07:00

Technology transfer is the term used to describe the processes by which technological knowledge moves within or between organisations. International technlogy transfer refers to the way in which this occurs between countries.The technological knowledge that is transferred can assume various forms. It can be embodied in goods(including phyiscal goods,plant and animal organisms), services and people,and organisational arrangement,or codified in blueprints,designs,technical documents,and the content of innumerable types of training.Alternatively it can be communicated through flows of tacit knowledge-i.e knowledge that has not been fully codified, and remains embodied in the skills of people.
All this forms of knowledge may vary in a further important way. At on e end of the spectrum,the transfer invovled can be concerned with the knowledge for using and operating technology. At the other end,it can be concerned with the knowledge necessary for changing technology and innovating. In between, transferred knowledge may involve the many different kinds of design and engineering knowledge required to replicate and modify technologies.
Moreover, in international technology transfer there is a distinction between horizontal and vertical transfers.Horizontal technology transfer consists of the movement of an established technology from one operational environment to another(for instance from one company to another). Vertical technology transfer, in contrast, refers to the transimission of new technologies from thier generation during research and development activities in science and technology organisations,for instance, to application in the industrial and agricultural sectors.

Draft ICT policy to govern information flow

2006-05-16T11:47:00.000-07:00

The Deputy Minister of Communication, Mr. Dr Benjamin Aggrey Ntim has disclosed that a draft policy document expected to define specifications governing information flow across government and the public sector is being facilitated by the Ministry of Communication.The policy which is dubbed the e-Government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF) is aimed at enhancing the judicious use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) in the country.The policy would also allow electronic information and transactions to "operate seamlessly across agencies and jurisdictions". Speaking at the launch of the 10th West Africa Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) Exhibition and Conference (AITEC), in Accra on the theme: "Using ICT as a tool for Information and Knowledge Management."Dr Ntim said the e-GIF would cover areas such as interconnectivity, data integration, and access to e-services and content management. He noted that inputs would be required from various stakeholders to ensure that the framework contributed to "national information, knowledge management and the sharing process.""The drive towards an information society requires us to create a world of greater interconnectivity, accelerated flow of data and shrinking time in doing business within and outside national boundaries". Dr Ntim said it was necessary for Ghana to develop a technological evolution that would lead to poverty reduction and the transformation of the existing societal framework using ICT tools."Our greatest challenge is to strive to have a unified approach and understanding to bridge the gap in knowledge that is crucial to the elimination of poverty, as we strive to provide equal opportunities of growth to everyone."In an interview with this reporter Dr. Ntim hinted that discussions were underway between the governments of Ghana and China to source a soft loan for fibre-optic connectivity to the entire country and said it would be concluded by June this year with the visit of the Chinese Prime Minister to Ghana.

Stolen UK mobiles end up in Ghana

2006-05-10T11:47:00.000-07:00

MOBILE PHONES nicked in the UK are usually ending up in the Western African country of Ghana, say police. According to the BBC, Ghana has been experiencing a surge in mobile phone use, and apparently it is on the back of hot phones shipped from the UK.The Beeb quotes Superintendent Eddie Thompson, of the world's only dedicated mobile phone crime unit, based in London, as saying most phones nicked in the UK end up on a slow boat to Ghana. He said they often get switched on briefly at some point and can be tracked.Ironically, once the phones are sold in that country, they are usually re-stolen. Ghana is also experiencing a wave of mobile phone muggings and thefts. Gangs of young kids on small motorbikes, snatch them from pedestrians or car drivers.Many of the stolen phones end up in Accra's Tiptoe Lane, known for its second-hand markets and traders of goods of questionable origin.Ademan, one of the traders, explained that he receives supplies from Finland, and brand new phones from Dubai. On a good day he will sell four phones, on a bad day none.He said, however, that he does not accept phones to sell unless they are accompanied by a matching charger.But another trader, Alasan, said that he simply sells phones he is given by his brother, who says they come from Italy."I can't know whether they are stolen - I can't know that," he admitted.But the story of the stolen phone does not end there.The surge in mobile phone ownership in the country in recent years - some of which has been driven by the availability of stolen European phones - has led to a wave of crime focused solely on snatching the phones from their owners.Gangs of young boys, usually aged 14-16, ride around the city on "motos" - small motorcycles - targeting people who have handsets in plain sight.They are often able to snatch them swiftly, and at force, before driving off."The bike comes, they go behind the car - the driver didn't even see they were coming - and then they got to the passenger side and snatched the phone with some force," explained one victim."Then they sped off, and they were gone.It came to a level where the police needed to act - and we have actedDeputy director of police public affairs Kwesi Ofori "It happens a lot - they just snatch your phone, and they are gone."A former gang leader, Razak, told Global Perspective how easy he had found it to steal the phones.And if the handset was not clearly visible, they would simply target people's bags which they would usually keep the phone in."I was always looking for phones, every time I stepped outside," he said.."Phones are easier than wallets - and often wallets don't have anything in anyway."He explained that the reason his gang had stolen was because "we didn't have any education, and our family had no money - nothing.""But I saw it was a bad life," he added.This relatively new crime has been working its way up the police priority list in the country."It came to a level where the police needed to act - and we have acted," said Accra's deputy director of police public affairs, Kwesi Ofori."We have put a lot of resources in. In 2004, there were 209 reported cases - in 2005, 417."Our anti-armed robbery unit has taken it very seriously, and has arrested a lot of violent gang members for phone snatching."We have reduced phone robbery to a level which is encouraging."Changing attitudesPhilip Boyfi, one of Ghana's biggest mobile phone retailers, explained that until recently many Ghanaians were not at all careful about concealing their phones."They always want to show off the mobile phone they have got," he said."All my customers want to be able to scream at the top of their voice that they are on cellphones."However, following a massive push by the police to educate people of the dangers of using their phone in the street, attitudes are changing."You hear of people being threatened at gunpoint for their phone, hit, stabbed with knives," said Fiona Entman, one Accra citizen who lives not far from Tiptoe Lane."Now, it is a bit on the low side. Some months ago it was terrible and everyone was scared - some people did not even take their phones to the office, they just left it at home."There was a lot of publication on safety with your mobile phone. People are now more alert, and even the people who commit such crimes are more alert, because the police are around."
The Inquirer

AU delegates visit GT Earth Station

2006-05-10T11:10:00.000-07:00

A four-member assessment team from the Africa Union Commission (AUC) on Tuesday inspected facilities at the Ghana Telecom Earth Station at Nkuntunse near Accra to ascertain Ghana's capability to host the satellite Hub of the Pan-African Telecommunication Network.The Africa Union Commission and the Government of India signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the establishment of a Pan-African e-Network through which India and AU would provide tele-medicine, tele-education and VVIP network in all member states to support economic growth and contribute to the achievement of the millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the NEPAD ICT initiative.Responding to the AU's invitation to bid for the selection of a suitable location for the satellite Hub Earth Station, Ghana submitted its bid to host the satellite communication Hub Earth Station, Regional Super Speciality Hospital and a University.The facilities of the Ghana Telecommunication's Earth Station at Nkutunse, University of Ghana and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology were considered by Ghana to be appropriate to meet the standards and requirements expected by the AU for the location of the Hub Earth Station.Senegal and Mauritius were the other two strong contenders. The team would verify the suitability of the institutions and also to confirm the commitments submitted by Ghana to host the Hub Station, which would be passed on to Ghana after the expiry of the project. Eliman M. CHAM MIEE, Vice President of the Regional African Satellite Communications Organisation (RASCOM) and a member of the team, said they were impressed with the manner the facilities at the Earth Station were maintained.He said all the facilities had met the international standards and commended Ghana Telecom and the Government for their commitment and dedication to work.Professor Mike Ocquaye, Minister of Communications, said the Government would ensure that the necessary infrastructure required for the project were in place before the commencement of the project. He said the Ministry of Energy would also provide the necessary electricity capacity to the site and the Ministry of Transportation would also reconstruct the two-kilometre link road to the site. "The Ministry of Communications will ensure that the necessary exemptions and licensing are granted to ensure the smooth running of the operation of the project," he said.Prof Ocquaye said Ghana attached great importance to the activities of the AU and with regard to the Pan-African e-Network and Ghana was ready to put at the disposal of the project infrastructure and personnel that would be required for its successful implementation. He announced that a nation-wide fibre optic communications backbone infrastructure would be constructed to cover the entire country and would also be extended to link up with the neighbouring countries. Other members of the team included Mehari Taddele Maru, a Legal Expert of the Office of the Legal Counsel, African Union Commission; Dr Zouli Bonkoungou, Telecom and ICT Expert, AU Commission; and Ganesh Chanbra Pandey, Regional Director-West Africa, Telecommunications Consultants India Limited, a Government of India Enterprise. The team would leave tonight for Senegal.

Introduction to ICT Journalism

2006-05-09T05:46:00.000-07:00

Introduction

Technology has always been the mechanism through which humankind has leveraged its efforts, both individually and collectively, to improve its quality of life. Early forms of “technology” broadly defined, included tools such as the axe, the spear, bows and arrows, and other similar implements that help people to survive many thousand of years ago. Latter the wheel, steam engine, the internal combustion engine, the automobile, nuclear power, aircraft, computers, the Internet, automated manufacturing equipment and so on were invented.. (Norman and Danny 2002)
In our area, we can say the quill pen as a tool gave way to the pen, we move on to manual typewriter, currently we have a wide range of tools for our trade which potentials are unlimited.
We have to note each of these new technologies was invariably an improvement on the previous one with the key goal of improving and generating competitive advantage.
According to Norman and Danny, control over the natural environment, usually enabled or enhanced through technologies, can be thought of as defining the difference that sets apart the human race from other species such as chimpanzees.
The import of this statement is that, technology plays a very important role, all things being equal, in ensuring we improve the quality of life as whole and utilize this same technology in our professional life in particular.
It becomes important that we take a look at the impact, challenges and prospects of technology broadly and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) specifically in the Journalism space.
According to Gary Hanson, Since the early 1950s, computers have played a major role in journalism and mass communication. As early as 1956, computers were used to analyze political polling data and national election returns in the USA. In the beginning, only the largest media organizations could afford computer-based technology. Today, computers are present in virtually every newsroom in the USA.
Globally computers are now become part and parcel of most news room unfortunately in the south due to the so called digital divide, some news room do not have the benefit of having the full array of computers.

CHANGE, CHANGE, CHANGE
Interesting enough, some Journalists can be found in pool of people who are not eager for change. The idea of ICT Journalism is about change than anything else because without the willingness to go through the process of continuous change, ICT Journalism cannot become a reality in your news room. For example, by selecting and implementing any technology comes with innovations. Three critical elements come into play in this direction, creating new product, new processes and new approaches in undertaking tasks.
To put this bluntly, you can not generate a new product such as a news website using old processes and approaches because this combination would not work leading to a possible failure of your news website. It is important for us, to focus how to tackle change issues as we relate to ICT Journalism. On the other hand, if you want to generate content about ICT as well, you have to change your mindset and relate to it appropriately in order to generate award wining successful stories.

What is ICT?
According to Gerster 2003, “Information and Communication Technologies(ICTs) facilitate the creation , storage, management and dissemination of information by electronic means. Such as an understanding includes radio, television, fix-net and mobile telephony, fax, computer and the internet. Four characteristics describe these ICTs
1 Interactivity – ICTs are effective two-way communication technologies
2. Permanent availability – the new ICTs are available 24 hours a day
3. Reduced costs – for the many relative costs of communication have shrunk to a fraction of previous values”

ICT includes a whole range of technologies that facilitate communication and the processing and transmission of information by electronic means - from the conventional radio and landline to computers, Internet and mobile phones.

What is ICT JOURNALISM?

The concept and theory of ICT Journalism is quite new. The concept is clear. Journalism is an old age profession but it is not static. As time goes on we are all striving to improve the quality of journalism. ICTs when utilize appropriately can provide us with a powerful tool in improving and maintaining high quality journalism.
The theory of ICT Journalism sometimes suffers from what we called anachronism where we have to use old theories to explain this subject. This is a relative new subject area and work is in progress to generate new theories to guide this subject area as time goes on.

ICT Journalism can be defined as the use of ICTs tools in journalism, generation of a wide range of ICTs content and the interplay of ICT and Journalism, set within the framework of innovation, change; and information and knowledge management. (Ahiabenu 2006)

Elements of ICT Journalism definition
- ICT can be applied as a tool in day to day operations of Journalism and media organization.
- ICT as a specialization: where journalists assumed the title of ICT journalist with the main focus of collecting and delivery of ICT content in mainstream and alternative media. This follows the line of specialist journalism such economy, sports, agric etc. A popular variation of ICT Journalist is an Online Journalism who plies his or her trade online.
- ICT Journalism invariably led to innovation and change
- ICT Journalism works hand in hand with the theory of information and knowledge management
- The interplay of ICT and Journalism provide unlimited possibilities

Using ICTs in Journalism
There are thousand and one opportunities for using ICT in Journalism, an attempt to draw up a list of ICT Journalism applications would be a futile exercise since this list would be endless. Journalists can make use of ICTs in three major areas: (a) gathering and researching information to be used in news stories; (b) producing content for all types of media both new and traditional; and (c) distributing news stories to wide range of audience.
There is no doubt the use of ICTs have enabled latest news stories to be disseminated more quickly than before. That is the news cycle has become shorter due to the availability of tools to get instant news stories out quickly aided by the use of technology. Furthermore technology allows high quality news stories which could have taken ages to be done within a shorter period of time.
Let explore the usage of ICT in Journalism by looking at what we called front end and back end areas:

Front End
This is the front end part of the equation, mostly related to the media. For example, a traditional media such as print or electronic, attempts to publish content using ICT such as putting content online, via SMS on cell phones, digital radio etc. Basically the tradition media interface with new media in a hybrid option.
Another new phenomenon is new media where by creation of news content is done for solely for new media. For example, having a new media house such an online newspaper. (Exclusive electronic version)

Also at the front end is news aggregation where the unique factor is the creation of a central source which does not normally engage in content generation but it takes content from numerous sources and make them available at this point.
Another growing movement is “citizen journalism” where mostly technology allows non journalists, any citizen to have a voice in the mass media.

Back End
At the back end, where content is generated, ICT allows Journalists to collect, package and deliver content. Emphasis is placed on the technical component, where a specific technology is applied in the news production cycle. We have on the market today, news production system that is enabled by information and communications technologies in response to changes on the media landscape. Think of this as a new factory with latest technology providing an efficient and effective means of production.

AREAS:
Technology in Electronic media (digital radio and television broadcast)
Digital News room management system
Virtual News room
Computer Assisted Journalism (Use of computer software applications (manipulation of database, Geographic Information System, etc)
Computer assisted reporting
Computer assisted investigative journalism
Online Journalism
Online Research

Conclusion ICT Journalism is a new and exciting area. It offers us a lot of unlimited opportunities and we need to invest time and energy in order to harness these opportunities both realized and untapped.

2006-05-09T05:27:00.000-07:00

RAYMOND OKUDZETO EXPOSED TOGBI SRI III
Calls him a Traitor and an evil genius who would do anything in his power to get what he want.

The President of the Volta Foundation and a senior citizen of the Anlo traditional Council, Mr. Raymond Okudzeto has descended heavily on Mr. Francis Nyonyo Agboada now parading himself as the Regent of the Awoamefia Stool with the stool name TOGBI SRI III,a name which according to the Chief and elders of the Anlo Traditional Council does not and has not existed since the formation of the Awoamefia Stool is concerned. He described him as traitor, a crook and an evil genius who would do anything in his power to get what he want.

Mr. Raymond Okudzeto who is also a leading member of the NPP disclosed that the self-styled Togbi Sri III of the Awoamefia stool does not have any royal lineage, to the Awoamefia Stool. He noted, “How can a man who had no blood ties to the royal can decide to intimidate, bribe, coerce and lie in order to become what he has no birth right to become a Regent. This man’s obsession has reached a point that he will do anything, change anything, ignore anything or anybody, who has tried to advise to cease in his megalomaniac ambition. “
According to Mr. Okudzeto, the self-styled Togbi Sri III defied all the traditional norms of the Anlo people and went ahead to appoint himself as the Regent of the Awoamefia Stool and presided over the sacred festival of the Anlo, Hogbetsotso despite frantic efforts from the chief and elders of the Anlo Traditional Council to stop him from causing such an abomination. Francis Nyonyo Agboada aka Togbi Sri III is alleged to have also financially corrupted some government officials, the judiciary and some security agencies, using them to achieve his diabolical and nonsensical goals.

In an exclusive interview, Mr. Okudzeto pointed out that he has had premonition upon premonition that, if this man (Togbi Sri III) also known as Francis Nyonyo Agboada continues in pursuit of the Awoamefia Stool, then all Anlo’s will regret it until the day they die, mystery is going to cover the people of Anlo, like a fog.

Further investigation conducted by this reporter on Togbi Sri III also revealed that, during the 1996 parliamentary election, Mr. Agboada presented a false curriculum vitae to the chairman of the Anlo constituency in his attempt to contest on the ticket of the NDC in the Anlo constituency.

It has been established that contrary to Togbi Sri III,s stated claims, his CV in fact contained false and inaccurate records vis-à-vis his educational background.
It has also been determined that during the NDC regime in the late 90,s,the self-styled Togbi Sri III who was then the Chief Executive Office of Fraga Construction Limited now Fraga Oil, together with one Vick Kwashie Djre paraded themselves as officials working at the Office of the President and defrauded many innocent Ghanaians in the process. This criminal behavior on the part of Mr. Agboada and his accomplice prompted the then Ministry of Information, to issue out a warning statement to the public in the Graphic of 13th January,1997 to desist from dealing with him.
However, several attempts made by this reporter to get Togbi Sri III to comments on this issues proved futile.

Benjamin Nana Appiah Acquaye.

New Media-Talking to yourself

2006-05-02T09:26:00.000-07:00

Do not be too afraid of the coming age of mass participation

FOR the past few weeks the “mainstream media” in America have been busy chewing over the choice of Katie Couric, a popular host of NBC's Today show, to become the anchor of the CBS Evening News in September. Those in other countries, as well as Americans under 30, may be forgiven for thinking that a news story about a newscaster is just a spectacular bout of navel-gazing. Of course it is—which is precisely why it holds a couple of lessons about “new media”.
News about News is partly the product of journalists' urge to talk about themselves—a pretty universal urge, as it turns out. The same impulse is the key to the changes sweeping through news and entertainment, as our survey on New Media describes. Mass media used to be one-way traffic from media to audiences. Readers, listeners and viewers, as a murmur besides the pontification of professionals, were consigned to call-in shows and the letters pages.
The shift to an era of participation challenges this. The infrastructure for delivering media content—the internet—is fast becoming ubiquitous. Ordinary people are creating their own blogs, wikis and podcasts, because it costs almost nothing to do so. Most of them do not care how large their “audience” is. Some choose to keep it small and intimate; a tiny number become stars—one-man and one-woman news organisations in their own right. Since the audience is made up of people who are themselves sounding off, new media are more of a hubbub than a homily.
Which leads to the second item on the Evening News: anxiety. Ms Couric's job matters because it is an attempt to shore up a crumbling institution. Media executives are not the only ones to fret as audiences decline. The CBS Evening News was first broadcast in 1948 and people are sentimental about the media they grew up with. The fear is partly about what might be lost from the mainstream, partly of what might replace it. Many fear that a cacophony leads to a splintered society. How can anything good come from the clamour of so many raised voices? Isn't it an echo chamber in which those full of passionate intensity spend long hours sharing prejudices?
That is wildly pessimistic. For a start, in the age of mass participation, new media will co-exist with old—indeed it is already increasingly hard to tell when one becomes the other. True, ever more people will upload short video clips to new websites such as YouTube.com, go to Netflix.com to rate their DVDs, to Amazon.com to discuss books and their own blogs for online debate. But that will not replace Steven Spielberg's blockbusters or the New York Times's network of reporters.
Moreover, the ease with which the internet spreads wrong-headedness—to say nothing of lies and slander—is offset by the ease with which it spreads insights and ideas. To regret the glorious fecundity of new media is to choose the hushed reverence of the cathedral over the din of the bazaar.
Credit-Economist.com

Ghanaweb.com-Not an official Gov't website.

2006-05-01T12:37:00.000-07:00

The debate as to whether 'Ghanaweb.com' is the official website and mouth piece for Government and the country as awhole has been raging on for the past six years after the initiation of the incumbent Government,especially when stories and feature articles that appears on the website seem to be critical of Government and its policies.

At an opening ceremonyof a workshop organised for about 30 Ghanaian journalists on Information Society Issues,the Acting Director of Information Service Department(ISD),Mr.D.A.Kwapong who represented the Minister of Information, Mr. Dan K. Botwe at the function let the cat out of the bag by pointing out in clear terms that Ghanaweb.com is not the official National website of the Republic of Ghana and that people should not access it for any credible information on Ghana.Mr. Kwapong then directed interested persons who yeans for accurate information on Ghana to the Government website which is www.ghana.gov.gh.He noted that,although the website is comparatively still in its infant phase of development in terms of technology, contents management and even the design of the website itself ,but it is serving a great deal of purpose as far as online provision of Government information is concerned.

The Government website, which is also refer to as the National Portal offer access to useful basic information on Ghana such as the National Budget Statement presented to Parliament, various draft policy documents such as draft Bills(Right to Information,Whistle Blower) Reports of commissions including that of the National Reconciliation Report,in full. It also serves as a One-Stop-Shop for authentic information on investment opportunities and tourism attractions in Ghana.

The Director of Information Service Department also spoke of how Prospertive Investors both local and foreign have developed appreciable confidence in the National Website to an extent that they (investors) always send mails or request to verify and cross check on the background of individuals or institutions that they want to do business with, not only in Ghana but in some African countries as well.This according to Mr. Kwapong, is one major roles that National Website is playing to safeguard and protect investors against cyber frauds.

He hoped that with development partner support on a larger E-Ghana project, the Ghana Portal will be enhanced technologically,and with more capacity building in Human resource,to improve the content management and other public services delivery such as revenue collection,acquisition of driver's licence,registration of companies and other similar services to be accessed online.

Story by Benjamin Nana Appiah Acquaye

ictpowerhouse

2006-04-27T18:24:00.000-07:00

ictpowerhouse
ISODEC urges govts to enforce ECOWAS trade protocol
The Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC) on Thursday urged ECOWAS member States to demonstrate commitment towards the full implementation of sub-regional protocols on free movement of people, goods and services."We challenge West African Governments to develop mechanisms to support and facilitate Economic Community of West African States' (ECOWAS) Trade Liberalization Scheme and use the Common External Tariff systems as a measure to safeguard the regional market," Mr Sylvester Bagooro, ISODEC Programme Officer in Charge of Trade, stated at a press conference in Accra.ISODEC; General Agriculture Workers Union (GAWU); Market Access Promotion Network and Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana jointly organized the press conference, in collaboration with the Trade and Farmers groups from Burkina Faso to outline social activism on ECOWAS Trade Week celebration.The Week being celebrated on the general theme: "Regional Integration: The Key to Poverty Reduction," is to create awareness and sensitise people on the importance of liberalised trade among ECOWAS member States in general and between Ghana and Burkina Faso in particular.The celebration would also focus on the creation of awareness on the ECOWAS Protocol on Free Movement of Goods, People and Services and to strengthen collaboration among ECOWAS member governments, civil society and producer organizations.The ISODEC further called for the reduction of Motor Traffic and Transport Unit of the Ghana Police Service and Customs, Excise and Preventive Service barriers dotted on the Trans-West Africa Highways. The situation according to ISODEC and its partners did not augur well for the nurturing of mutual trust as well as the creation of an enabling environment for economic development and reduction of poverty through increased trade.The group also urged West African Governments to recognize the leading role of agriculture and women in agriculture in reducing poverty and enhancing food security, "as they adopt and append their signatures to world treaties"."Governments should compensate distortions in agricultural policies through the implementation of policies that protect regional farmers and market, which have already suffered from the surges in highly subsidized cheap and dumped imported agriculture produce." 27 April 06

DJ Kanto

ictpowerhouse

2006-04-27T13:55:00.000-07:00

ictpowerhouse
VIBE FM USING ICT TOOLS TO BLAZE THE CAPITAL CITY WITH ITS VIBRANT YOUTH PROGRAMME
Vibe fm, a radio station that pride itself as being the number one Urban Youth Oriented Station in the capital city, Accra is using ICT in driving the station to another height .
The station, which has as it slogan the Soul of the Capital is living up to its social responsibility by using effective ICT tool to produce all its programme contents.
Among the programmes that are driven by ICT is the Personal and Development Show (PDS), a programme produced and presented by young, dynamic and innovative youths.PDS is a program with three segments where each segment is presented by professionals with an in-depth knowledge in their field of endeavor. One of the segments which have really attracted a large audience to the programme is the ICT segment where an ICT expert is brought in to educate the programme audience on the easy use of ICT tools like the computer and its other accessories. It is also interesting to know that guest motivational speakers are periodically invited to the studio of the station to feature on the show, and that help boost the interest and charisma of the programme in the station young and vibrant audience.
Personal Development Show serves as a wake-up call for all youths within the suburbs of Accra, especially when the show gets to its interactive segment. The phone lines to the programme need not to be mentioned by the host before callers start buzzing into the show to air their view and ideas on issues discussed during the programme.This alone tells one how PDS has won the hearts of all the youths in Accra.
Vibe Fm, the soul of the capital through the use of ICT assisted programmes have empowered many up and coming Ghanaian youths to take up challenges that enables them achieve their dreams and aspirations. It has also in a way support the Presidential Special Initiative in using ICT as a tool for Distance Education Learning.
Hey, want to get the feel of the youth program I am talking about? Then tuned into Vibe 91.9 Fm or check us on our website on www.vibefm.com.gh and experience the magic of Personal Development Show anytime you find yourself in Accra, Ghana on every Saturday mornings.
Benjamin Nana Appiah Acquaye
Vibe Fm/2A Multimedia

Websites and Success of Online Journalism in Ghana

2006-04-27T10:09:00.001-07:00

WEBSITES AND SUCCESS OF ONLINE JOURNALISM IN GHANA

Online Journalism is just gaining grounds in Ghana and indeed growing fast by the day.

This new form of journalism thrives on the back of a few locally designed websites that have the aim of disseminating information in the fastest possible means to millions abroad.

During the 2004 elections, the only medium that was used to broadcast proceedings effectively beyond the borders of Ghana was the use of the internet; putting the electoral processes in the full glare of the entire world.

Websites like ghanaweb, myananse.com, myjoyonline.com and peacefmonline.com played key roles with constant update on situations in the country.

After the election, there seems to have been sparked some level of competition among these websites that were before not threatened by each others operations. This has in a great deal charged the attitude of no compromise on quality among these online news portals.

Myjoyonline.com, Ghanaweb and peacefmonline.com all owned by private entities focus mainly on politics, economy and social issues. Myananse.com on the other hand enlarges its territories by giving much attention to entertainment and cultural issues in Ghana and the entire African Continent.

Other websites that also play good roles online on Ghana’s behalf are; Ghana.gov, the country’s official website, ghanamusic.com, ghananewsagency.org, allafrica.com ghanatoday.com, choicefmonline.com, vibefm.com.gh and yellowpages.com, an online business directory.

Another breakthrough in this area is the introduction of online radio on these websites. Now many people do not miss home when they travel abroad anymore, because information is made readily available to them online sometimes faster than those at home. Some of the mostly patronize one’s are Peace FM, Joy FM, Adom FM, Ghana Waves and Radio Gold. All these radios are streamed live on the internet and its patronage is clearly seen by the number of listeners abroad who contribute into the various programs on air by e-mail, txt, and telephone.

Gradually, politicians are becoming conscious about the use of the internet as the fastest way of spreading information. Whiles some of them are amused about this new trend in journalism, others feel it is the fastest way of washing their dirty linen in public.

Analysts anticipate that online media will hack other success in Ghana when the Representation of the People Amendment Law (ROPAL) finally takes effect. This is because currently, the only reliable means of getting information to potential voters in the Diaspora is by the use of the internet. More websites are also expected to be created during that time.

Operators in this sphere are still grappling with professionalism considering the number of times people, particularly politicians have threaten to sue some websites for publishing libelous stories. Ghanaweb especially, has suffered major criticisms for certain sensitive stories it has published.

Ghana will be 50 years next year and again these websites are expected to help chiefly in marketing the nation. At least 50% of the marketing exercise is to be done by these sites, another opportunity for them to impress billions online.

Besides these good prospects, there have been many challenges that have slowed down the growth of these websites and operations of the news men who keeps them alive. Ready access to fast and reliable internet connection has been a major challenge. Sometimes just when information is ready for upload, the server goes down and job is on a temporary hold up.

Another problem is the lackadaisical attitude of many Ghanaians who browse the internet though they are aware of its immense benefits. Statistics on myananse.com puts Ghana at the 7th country in the world that visits the site most in a day with the US and UK coming first and second respectively.

One other problem is the unavailability of equipment to aid the operations of these websites.

Notwithstanding all these benefits derived from online journalism, one major issue that needs to be addressed seriously by journalists is the failure of the Ghana Journalist Association (GJA) to come up with a website.

Since GJA is the mother body of all journalists in Ghana and therefore the first port of information when it comes to researching on media issues, a website for the organization is a must-have.

A website could also be of immense help to smaller media organizations used by members to post their stories for a wider audience.

Nonetheless, online journalism is here to stay and it is believed that within the next five years the number of news people who would report for the internet would triple.

Browsing the internet is a much enjoyable thing to do than what people perceive. Everything you need can be acquired by just a click of a button. Websites make the internet. They provide content that appeal to the browser. From education, religion, entertainment and pornography, information abounds. Many websites have been created in Ghana for the past five years and this has tripled information about the nation online.

End

By: Selase Attah & Mavis Mensah
27th April, 2006

Websites and Success of Online Journalism in Ghana

2006-04-27T10:09:00.000-07:00

Ghana's ICT experience in its Education Sector

2006-04-27T09:58:00.000-07:00

Ghana was among the first African countries to adopt a National ICT for development policy in 2003.This policies among other thing provides basic guideline on the use of ICT for accelerating the country’s developmental goals. Government commitment to these ICT4D policies has led to the establishment of the government portal website www.ghana.gov.gh serving as an official mouth piece for government and can be access at any giving time, interestingly; every sector of Ghana’s infant and vibrant economy is having its fair share of the luxury and efficiency that ICT provides. However. One sector of economy which is benefiting tremendously with the modern digital drive is the education sector.

INFORMATION COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY (ICT) EDUCATION

The ICT revolution is having tremendous impact on the rapid development of world economies and making national economies more interdependent than they were some years ago. The Ministry of Education is therefore committed to making Ghana a key player in today's digital age. To this end, the Ministry has embarked upon a programme to streamline computer studies in secondary schools. Already, a draft ICT policy has been prepared and submitted to Cabinet for approval. A curriculum has also been developed for ICT training and examination at the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSSCE) Level. In addition, every effort is being made to provide telephone facilities to all senior secondary schools and training colleges to enable them have access to the Internet. Government's policy statement places emphasis on the creation of an enabling environment for all Ghanaians, irrespective of their socio-economic status, or geographical location, to have access to basic social services such as health-care, quality education, potable water, among others.

It is in the light of these, coupled with the falling standards in education, and the nation's inability to produce skilled work-force that can compete effectively in a globalized knowledge-based economy, that government thought of developing an alternative education for children and the youth out of school and those in hard-to-reach areas.

By developing an alternative education, government aims at addressing problems associated with school enrolment, quality and relevance of studies - all of which combine to produce skill and entrepreneurial gaps in the labour market affecting various youth groups. On April 30, 2002, a national planning committee was inaugurated by the Honourable Minister for Information and Presidential Affairs, Mr. Jake O. Obetsebi-Lamptey. The Committee was tasked to plant the establishment of a distance education and open learning system to enhance in a significant and cost effective manner the provision of education in the country. The project, which is under the President's Special Initiative, is collaboration between the Ministry of Information and Presidential Affairs and the Ministry of Education.

The Scope of the committee's work includes the following;

The Planning of a JSS/SSS programme in Mathematics and English to be aligned with the JSS and SSS curricula. This will be broadcast on TV during School term and School hours, but to stand-alone from classroom schedules. Teacher Education Programme, targeted at teachers in Mathematics and English to be broadcast on TV.

And an open college programme targeted at students in entrepreneurship, Information Technology training and also JSS and SSS students who would be following the Mathematics and English lessons of the JSS/SSS programme in preparation to sit or resist relevant examinations.

The Committee has its secretariat located in the Ministry of Information and Presidential affairs and has in place an Administration Officer and a Secretary.
Best Teachers in the various disciplines have been recruited to write and review scripts. Some completed scripts have been sent to selected Media Production Houses for filming.

Some schools have been identified nation-wide as pilot schools where programme impact would be assessed. TV has been proposed as the main delivery medium for cost effectiveness due to the current low level of computer literacy, limited access to Internet and computers. CD Rom production of the television lesions has been recommended for the JSS/SSS series. Radio programmes will be introduced later on, for only English.

Come January 2003 the pilot project would be launched for the programme to start rolling on the national television network