Web2forDev: Web 2.0 for Development Gateway

The mobile web explosion in Africa: the Facebook factor

Thursday, 26 August 2010 10:01

Will the mobile phone be the tool for a wider Internet access in Africa? The latest statistics show a remarkable growth of mobile web users with Facebook being a major incentive to bring people online, however costs for data traffic on mobile phones are still a major obstacle.

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Ideas for development: The web and its potential role in project innovation

Thursday, 05 August 2010 23:34

Linus Pauling, scientist and two-time Nobel Prize winner, once said: “To have a good idea you must first have lots of ideas.” How often do you brainstorm about a solution? When do you really tap on the wide expertise of people and the creative minds of a crowd? Normally it takes a workshop to brainstorm on ideas in a wider circle. The participatory web offers here some new ways to generate ideas and solutions to address development challenges. In a previous post we looked at interesting open collaboration projects, another approach is idea competitions.

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Web 2.0 Learning Opportunity, Molo, Kenya, 27 September - 1 October 2010

Monday, 28 June 2010 00:00

Venue: Baraka Agricultural College, Molo, Kenya
Date and time: Monday 27 September – Friday 1 October, 2010 (9:00 – 16:30)

Technological innovation is taking place at a breath-taking pace. Simple, open source internet-based applications and services designed to enhance on-line collaboration are now available to the wider public at little or no cost at all. These new online services known as Web 2.0 applications enable people to collaborate remotely in creating, sharing and publishing information.

The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation EU-ACP (CTA) has the mandate to facilitate access to and dissemination of information in the fields of agriculture, rural development and sustainable natural resource management in 78 countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP). Supporting the adoption of Web 2.0 applications represents a great opportunity for meeting it.

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Reach your audience on their mobile phones

Saturday, 31 July 2010 19:36

A recent TechTip published on ICT Update (issue 55) provides interesting guidelines on how to send out short messages to a large number of preselected recipients using SMS texting.

The members of agricultural cooperatives often live far from the organisation’s main offices. It can, therefore, be difficult for farmers to find out about urgent meetings, training courses, market prices and other new developments. To help keep their members up-to-date, cooperatives can use software or web-based applications to send text messages to all or selected members’ cell phones at the same time. One popular service for sending multiple messages is BulkSMS. You can register to use it directly from the website or download a desktop version of the application.

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Web 2.0 Wonders

Thursday, 22 July 2010 08:38

The Internet remains one of the most important resources for information retrieval, research, communication and networking. Many of its users keep on discovering that there are an increasing number of opportunities offered by the new 2nd generation platforms available on the internet also dubbed as Web 2.0. Although the Internet may not be easily accessible to the rural poor in the African continent, the steadily decreasing costs of ICTs and Internet infrastructure all point to a promising future. A total of 28 participants (50% women) representing academic Institutions, NGOs, media, research and development organisations at a recently concluded Web 2.0 Learning Opportunity organised by CTA and held at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in Nairobi, Kenya, on July 5-9, 2010, could not hide their excitement as they were introduced to Web 2.0 innovations and started exploring some of its many avenues.