Circumspecte

The current wave of African storytelling is largely driven by access to social media and citizen journalists who literally break the news as it happens. But there's still a lot of content yet to be created - especially in Ghana, Africa. BloggingGhana  has been at the forefront of social media and citizen journalism in Ghana since it's inception in 2009 by a group of 8 friends. Now, the organization has hundreds of active members who contribute to news, information on Ghana, Africa, from the ground up. After five years of meeting and working in cafes, auditoriums, schools, and so on, BloGH is finally coming home. Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to BloGHome. With the launch of its #MoreStories fundraising drive, BloGH hopes to raise $10,000 to furnish its newly procured office in Accra (see below). Per it's Indiegogo fundraising page , BloGHome will include a training area for training students, civil society, government actors and organizations on using social media ...

Hi Everyone! Hope all's well. Okay, so this is just a quick note to alert you guys on two things. First - the TED Talks - which is basically a series of forums where leaders or innovators in various sectors share their work, passion, opinions etc. And second - Ghana's newly launched FIRST online electronic library. TED Talks: Ideas Worth Spreading I've made reference to many TED videos here on Circumspect, but I realized I never actually dedicated a single post to it. Essentially, the TED talks have people from all walks of life and professions - art, science, language, culture, politics, food, health, and what-have you - coming together to share their passion, their life experiences, their ideas for a better world and so on. The talks happen all over the world, so there's been TED London or TED Toronto and so on, and also, sometimes focuses on specific themes like TEDxYouth or TED Women. The GREAT thing about it is everything is available online AND you can downlo...

So. I normally don't write posts on all these social media tools and networks, because I can barely keep up. But Google has just unveiled it's latest competitor to Twitter and Facebook: Google Buzz ! Been trying it out, and I like it. One thing about Google is they always seem to look at convenience. Put chat in email, and everyone's signing up. Come up with your own version of twitter and put it in email ... and what? Everyone's signing up. I don't know what happened with Google Wave , but everything else seems to catch on. I've been saying this for a long time, and I will say it again. Google is taking over. Now with Buzz, here are some things I'm wondering about: - How will it affect Twitter...and to a lesser degree Facebook? - What will employers think about Google Buzz? More distraction for workers? - Will the productivity level of employees soar or reduce? - What about misdirected information...you know how you send an email to everyone in you...

Anyone who knows me, knows how big I am on information access. Yesterday I covered an Oxfam/FP event at the Newseum - the latest addition to D.C.'s museums, and the most interactive. My editor told me what a big deal it was, but I didn't get it. Until I got there! The place is massive, with interactive screens for learning about the most important news in human history, the progression of media through the ages etc. I was soo giddy with excitement, I couldn't decide what to look at first. For those of you in D.C., def head up to the Newseum! It's amaaaazing! Information Access & Documentation I eventually did a quick run through of the entire place, and I loved every bit of it. It made me appreciate information access even more, and I'm even more impassioned to help improve information access in Ghana and Africa as a whole. We need to document our histories, it holds the key to understanding (or trying to) humanity better. We need more movies on historic,...