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February 20 2012
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Netsquared Regional Conference Buea Cameroon
Conference theme: Cameroon Netsquared Reboot
The Netsquared regional conference Buea Cameroon built for the 9th of February 2012 at Dchucks Palace hotel came to pass as scheduled though we encountered some technical difficulties in carrying out part of our activities. The conference brought together civil society organizations and techies to rethink the future of the network in Cameroon and set a solid foundation. We were lucky enough and highly favored to have:
- Nicolle Beeby from SANGONet South Africa (www.sangonet.org.za) who spoke on ‘the introduction of Social Media in NGOs’,
- A 20mins video from Daniel Ben-Horin, CEO of Techsoup Global,
- Tobias Eigen, Founder Kabissa Kabissa, who spread the news over the web (www.kabissa.org ) and,
- Asama A. Excel, President & CEO of I-Vission International (www.ivission.net) presenting the historical background of Netsquared network in Cameroon
The following remote presenters could not connect to us due to Internet failure:
Marc Manashil, Community Evangelist for Netsquared (www.netsquared.org): he had to come in to comment the video from the CEO and co founder of Tecsoup Global. Marc just wished us the best through SMS and email.
David Barnard, Executive Director SANGONeT, was to talk on ‘online fund raising’, unfortunately after several attempts to connect us; we could not establish a comfortable connection. He sent us his presentation through email.
-------------------------
After the presentation of participants, Asama A. Excel was given the opportunity to introduce the historical background of Netsquared activities in Cameroon. He briefly explained to the audience how he was in a cyber café, searching for partners in Europe and the United States that promote the use of the web in social activities. This is how he came across Netsquared. He paid more attention on the Netsquareds’ network around the world with the famous Net Tuesdays meetings. Asama Excel developed great interest in the vision of Netsquared in particular and Techsoup Global in general which he said are similar to that of I-Vission International, the NGO he chairs in Cameroon. He decided to get involve by creating a network in Cameroon back in 2008. The Network started and was later on shut down because of in activity. He took the courage and created the group a second time in 2009. That same year, he succeeded to register some few members.
Below are some of the activities Netsquared Cameroon has succeeded to organize since creation:
- Cameroon Netsquared Campaign in Kribi, August 26-29, 2009. This 3 day event brought together 250 participants from different social sectors. Some of the highlights of the event include: A touristic tour in Kribi, swimming, visit to some orphanages, visit to the Kribi Urban council and the regional delegation of tourism.
- Netsquared Camp in Douala-Cameroon: The theme for this event was REMIXING THE WEB FOR SOCIAL CHANGE. It gathered 64 participants both in Douala and its environs to discuss issues on the impact of social web on civil society organizations. Some projects were presented by five different groups.
- Special training: the Netsquared team headed by Asama A. Excel organized a special training to build the capacity of students on project management on the 7th of February 2012 at the university of Buea Cameroon
- Local monthly meetings: We have succeeded to organize many local meetings in Cameroon -This regional conference is just part of the activities of Netsquared Cameroon
Challenges encountered
The major challenges we face in Cameroon are:
- Lack of a good internet connection,
- Ignorance or low access to the ICTs (Very few people master the social web)
- Financial and logistic difficulties to organize meetings,
- Difficulty in attending conferences organized in the USA. Last year in February we were refused Visa to the USA for no concrete reason. This provoked a negative impact on the group as a whole. The group coordinator, Asama Excel was psychologically disturbed and could not organize meetings regularly as a result of this, many members left.
The second speaker of the day was Nicolle Beeby by Nicolle from SANGONet, an NGO based in South Africa (www.sangonet.org.za) She presented the topic: An Introduction to the social Media for NGOs After a series of trials, she succeeded to Skype in. Participants were very attentive to this presentation for two reasons:
- It was their first time to learn through remote presentation
- Social media is making the news worldwide and everyone wants to be connected.
She attempted the following definition for social media:
- Social media is content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies
- A category of sites that is based on user participation and user generated content
- Online technologies and practices that people use to share opinions, insights experiences, and perspectives with each other
- Social media are works of user-created video, audio, text or multimedia that are published and shared in a social environment, such as a blog, wiki or video hosting site
The importance of social media to NGOs including:
- User-generated content T
- The demise of the webmistress J L -It’s so easy – the demise of the ‘tech guy’
- Getting our voices out there – the demise of the gatekeepers
- Participation – you speak out; other’s speak back
- A level playing field – we are all documenters
- Online presence – many can know about you -Text, audio, video, pictures – documenting gone wild J
Participants were as well empowered on micro blogging applications like twitter and facebook . Nicolle suggested the following sites for bloggers:
- Wordpress.com
- Blogger.com
- Live Journal
- Type pad
- Serendipity
- Movable Type
- See the wiki for URLs! http://socialmedia.ngopulse.org
The last segment of her presentation involved multimedia sites with flickr, Zoopy, Youtube channels and Dotsub.
- Youtube channels, NGOs are offered huge international audiences, limit of 20 minute uploads, 10 million uploads a day.
- Zoopy: Local option, local audiences, local speeds (faster). Audio, video and photos. Mobile site.
- Dotsub: Plugging in to a community of translators Nicolle highlighted the necessity of multimedia sites as a great way to find resources on issues related to your work and videos as a great way to effectively explain complex issues in a succinct and entertaining way. You can share explanations about your cause and why it is important.
Some best practices proposed
- Read blogs!
- CONVERGE ALL YOUR MEDIA eg Send your listeners to the blog transcript
- Convince your readers (via email, blog etc to listen tonight...)
- Make it sustainable – should be easy if you are a media org...
- Quality above quantity
- Respond to comments!!!!
- Don’t just tell – show
- Afrigadget •PROMOTE PROMOTE PROMOTE
- ANALYSE ANALYSE ANALYSE (www.google.com/analytics)
The Co Founder and CEO of Techsoup Global Daniel Ben-Horin, send us a 20minutes video tape explaining the vision of Techsoup Global. This video was projected several times to permit participants understand how Techsoup Global operates. Many participants notice that the CEO used the word trust, confidence and participating several times as essential tools in building long lasting and solid relationships. The NGOs present were delighted to hear the CEO say Techsoup is looking for credible organizations to work with in Cameroon.
Testimonies and success stories The participants were expecting testimonies from other Netsquared groups but unfortunately none of them volunteered to share with Netsquared Cameroon. We wonder why?. Nonetheless, they encourage us to keep on sharing with others.
The New team for Netsquared Cameroon The following organizations voluntarily accepted the offer to join the team and to give full support for the smooth running of Netsquared Cameroon:
- Helen Nsume Nkelnsieh: OREP NGO
- Hans Jambe Ebot: CHAMEG
- Ngrima Yvonne: ASWA-RUDEB
- Halle Simon: Empowerment PR
- Samuel Akuro: Creative Hands
- Abanda Sammy: Creative Hands
- Achu Denis: Member (Independent Expert)
- Acho Denis Fominyen: ASWA-RUDEB
- Andre Signing: Member (Independent Expert)
- Asama Abel Excel: I-Vission International
- Anagho Daniel: Member (Independent Expert)
Resolutions
- Participants were called to make contributions in writing to help us design our strategic plan of action,
- A website will be put in place to promote the activities of Netsquared in Cameroon. Part of the funds received from Techsoup Global should be kept aside for this purpose,
- The new team made up of civil society organizations shall henceforth develop and execute projects together,
- A specific fee will be charged for anyone seeking to join the network in Cameroon.
- Meetings could be held on or off line,
- More conferences and workshops should be organized regularly to build the capacities of members on social media and other related ICT issues.
- Facilitate access to ICTs to civil society organizations,
- Put in place a kind of umbrella bureau at regional levels to coordinate activities on the ground,
- Put in place an online platform to promote the activities of civil society organizations in Cameroon with priority to those affiliated to Netsquared Cameroon,
- Jointly organize activities with local partners, diplomatic representations and foreign stake holders.
Future event
A meeting was programmed for the 10th of March 2012 at the headquarters of I-Vission International in Douala to review the strategic plan of action
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“My Dream Interview” Festival draws youth to newspapers
“My Dream Interview” Festival draws youth to newspapers
Reuters’ U.S. news push signs on Yahoo, AOL, MSNBC.com
Bangladesh bans ‘Banglish’ to protect local tongue
Women still underrepresented in U.S. media, annual report shows
Journalism in Serbia: Profession at the Crossroads
Morocco bans Spanish paper over royal cartoon
[Tavussa] « Orange va généraliser en Afrique l’accès à Facebook depuis des mobiles basiques »
“All that is required is an issue about which others are passionate and feel unheard”
Here’s a must-read for anyone interested in sports journalism that goes beyond the weekend’s player ratings. As one of the biggest names in European football goes into administration, The Guardian carries a piece by the author of Rangerstaxcase.com, a blogger who “pulled down the facade at Rangers”, including a scathing commentary on the Scottish press’s complicity in the club’s downfall:
“The Triangle of Trade to which I have referred is essentially an arrangement where Rangers FC and their owner provide each journalist who is “inside the tent” with a sufficient supply of transfer “exclusives” and player trivia to ensure that the hack does not have to work hard. Any Scottish journalist wishing to have a long career learns quickly not to bite the hands that feed. The rule that “demographics dictate editorial” applied regardless of original footballing sympathies.
“[...] Super-casino developments worth £700m complete with hover-pitches were still being touted to Rangers fans even after the first news of the tax case broke. Along with “Ronaldo To Sign For Rangers” nonsense, it is little wonder that the majority of the club’s fans were in a state of stupefaction in recent years. They were misled by those who ran their club. They were deceived by a media pack that had to know that the stories it peddled were false.”
Over at Rangerstaxcase.com, the site expands on this in its criticism of STV for uncritical reporting:
“There does not appear to be a point where the media learns its lessons. There is no capacity for improvement. No voice that says: we have been misled by people from this organisation so often in the past that we need to get corroboration before we publish anything more. Alastair Johnston, you will recall, artfully created the impression for Rangers’ supporters and shareholders that the payment of the tax bills that are now crushing their club would be the responsibility of the parent company. His words then were carefully chosen to avoid actually lying, but his intended audience seemed in little doubt at the time as to what they thought he meant. Either Mr. Johnston has been misrepresented by STV or he appears to be trying to gain an advantage in the battle to oust Whyte by misleading Rangers’ supporters.”
The piece also includes some interesting reflections on collaborative journalism and crowdsourcing:
“Rangerstaxcase.com has become a platform for some of the sharpest minds and most accomplished professionals to share information, debate, and form opinions based upon a rational interpretation of the facts rather than PR-firm fabrications. In all of the years when the mainstream media had a monopoly on opinion forming and agenda setting, the more sentient football fan had no outlet for his or her opinions. Blogs and other modern media, like Twitter, have democratised information distribution.
“Rangerstaxcase.com has gone far beyond its half-baked “I know a secret” origins to become a forum for citizen journalism. The power of the crowd‑sourced investigation initiated by anyone who is able to ignite the interest of others is a force that has the potential to move mountains in our society. All that is required is an issue about which others are passionate and feel unheard.”
Rangerstaxcase.com is not unique. Combine the passion of sports supporters with the lack of critical faculty in much sports journalism and you have potentially fertile ground.
For my own club, Bolton Wanderers, for example, I turn to Manny Road (site currently laid low by a malware attack).
For the Olympics there will be a regular and easy supply of good news stories to wade through, but also an extremely active network of local and international blogs from people scrutinising the foggier side of the Olympic spirit, which is why I set up Help Me Investigate the Olympics and am encouraging my students to connect with those communities.
Atelier des médias (RFI): anniversaire en famille
Voir Atelier des médias (RFI): anniversaire en famille sur Continue reading →
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Could Twitter predict the stock market?
Reuters :: When Richard Peterson first started meeting with hedge funds about eight years ago to pitch using social media to predict market movement, investment managers looked at him as if he had just arrived from outer space. Back then, what he was pitching them seemed pretty insane. Peterson, managing director of Santa Monica-based MarketPsych, said that social media can be mined for data about what people are thinking and feeling. And that, in turn, could translate into powerful investment ideas.
Continue to read Chris Taylor, in.reuters.com
Scott Devitt, Morgan Stanley: Apple is killing Amazon
Business Insider :: Morgan Stanley analyst Scott Devitt says Amazon's poor results in the fourth quarter can be attributed directly to Apple's excellent results. He wrote in a note, "Apple’s strength in iPhone and iPad sales are negatively affecting Amazon.com by accelerating the company’s transition from physical to digital media sales (which has effects on sales, margins and ROIC) as well as impacting Electronics & General Merchandise (“EGM”) growth."
Continue to read Jay Yarow, www.businessinsider.com
Sun on Sunday 'has potential to do massive numbers'
Brand Republic :: Rupert Murdoch's long-awaited confirmation that News International would be launching a Sunday edition of The Sun "very soon", will undoubtedly give the Sunday market the kick up the backside many observers believe it needs. Media Week spoke to media agency executives and rival newspaper groups to get their take on the launch of the Sun on Sunday.
Continue to read John Reynolds, www.brandrepublic.com
Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon compete in India over mobile, social networks, e-commerce
FastCompany :: Google's getting into hardware to take on Apple. And Apple could be planning a smaller iPad, to edge out Amazon's Kindle Fire. Facebook filed a whopping big S-1 for an IPO this year, while Amazon pondered a retail store. It's clear the Great Tech War of 2012 is going strong, and India is one of the most desirable regions in the skirmish. Let's take a look at the latest developments.
Continue to read Nidhi Subbaraman, www.fastcompany.com
Yelp goes public: What it means about the future of crowdsourced media
GigaOM :: But the important thing here is that the filing means Yelp could become is one of the first almost entirely crowdsourced media entity entities to go public. Yelp’s entire business is built on the more than 25 million reviews that it has accrued over the years from its users. That user-submitted content is the reason that Yelp attracts more than 66 million unique visitors a month.
What’s interesting is how Yelp’s valuation compares it to other Internet companies and what it means for the future of media and publishing.
Continue to read Ryan Lawler, gigaom.com
Resources for learning about social media
I have been collecting posts, articles, tutorials and general how-to materials that relate to how journalists use social media. I started about two weeks ago, as I prepare for a workshop in Singapore.
They are curated here: Social Media and Journalists.
The collection is housed at Scoop.it, a curation site that goes a step beyond social bookmarking sites such as Delicious and Diigo, and which privileges text and tagging — rather than visuals (like Pinterest). For this particular project, I’m finding it very useful.
One example of its utility is that I can offer up a link to a subset of the complete collection by using my own tags: see all posts tagged with “Instagram.” This kind of selection is always useful in teaching and training. Unfortunately, you cannot combine tags (e.g., Instagram + howto) to narrow the search results.
I could have chosen Tumblr for this project, but I’m liking the way Scoop.it works. One of its best features is that when you “scoop” a link using the Scoop.it bookmarklet, the Scoop.it interface opens in a one-third-screen vertical overlay (shown in the first screen capture above). This allows me to scroll up and down in the source material, which makes it easy to write my annotations and choose my tags. I don’t have to flip between browser tabs.
The toolbar shown above appears at the bottom of every posted item. It’s fast and easy to edit your posts and to change or add tags. It’s also easy for others to share your posts on a variety of social networks.
A big drawback is that I can’t download or otherwise preserve my collection. If Scoop.it goes bust, I will lose all my work. There is an RSS feed, but the links go only to the Scoop.it posts; there is no link to the source material in the RSS feed. Bummer.
Scoop.it isn’t brand-new — the site launched in November 2011.
Resources for learning about social media
I have been collecting posts, articles, tutorials and general how-to materials that relate to how journalists use social media. I started about two weeks ago, as I prepare for a workshop in Singapore.
They are curated here: Social Media and Journalists.
The collection is housed at Scoop.it, a curation site that goes a step beyond social bookmarking sites such as Delicious and Diigo, and which privileges text and tagging — rather than visuals (like Pinterest). For this particular project, I’m finding it very useful.
One example of its utility is that I can offer up a link to a subset of the complete collection by using my own tags: see all posts tagged with “Instagram.” This kind of selection is always useful in teaching and training. Unfortunately, you cannot combine tags (e.g., Instagram + howto) to narrow the search results.
I could have chosen Tumblr for this project, but I’m liking the way Scoop.it works. One of its best features is that when you “scoop” a link using the Scoop.it bookmarklet, the Scoop.it interface opens in a one-third-screen vertical overlay (shown in the first screen capture above). This allows me to scroll up and down in the source material, which makes it easy to write my annotations and choose my tags. I don’t have to flip between browser tabs.
The toolbar shown above appears at the bottom of every posted item. It’s fast and easy to edit your posts and to change or add tags. It’s also easy for others to share your posts on a variety of social networks.
A big drawback is that I can’t download or otherwise preserve my collection. If Scoop.it goes bust, I will lose all my work. There is an RSS feed, but the links go only to the Scoop.it posts; there is no link to the source material in the RSS feed. Bummer.
Scoop.it isn’t brand-new — the site launched in November 2011.
February 19 2012
Data Monday: The Cross Channel Customer
It should come as no surprise that a cross channel customer (mobile, desktop, physical, etc.) is more valuable for companies than people only engaged in one channel. After all one plus one equals two, right? Actually, it's often more as this recent data shows.
- Pharmacy chain Walgreen’s has found that customers who engage in more than 1 channel are 3x more valuable than single channel customers. Walgreen’s channels support each other: SMS grows apps, Web grows mobile, stores grow SMS. Their customers don’t differentiate channels. (source)
- Walgreen's "pickup in an hour" lead to redesigned Web site that increased Web traffic 50%. Half of their Web site visitors say their next action is to go store. People utilize desktops for initial contact and sign ups, but use mobile for follow ups. More than 40% of Walgreen's on-line prescriptions come from mobile scanning apps. SMS notification are sent when orders are ready. Special parking space for store pickup is provided thereby completing a cross-channel loop.(source)
- Retailer Sears set up a "returns in 5 minutes" program that starts online then allows people to droop of returns at a physical location. Mobile works much better than desktop for this program. Sears also provides special parking spots to customers who buy online and pickup in the store. (source)
- Studies show that people interact on social media during TV shows. So MTV built a mobile app for fans to use during award shows. They got 1M interactions from TV ad support to a mobile URL that supported multitasking behavior of people watching TV and utilizing their mobile device simultaneously. (source)
- Not only does the Mac App Store get the productivity app, EverNote new users, it makes existing users more valuable. iTunes downloads for iOS devices were up by 54% during the same week that the EverNote Mac App Store app came out. People who use Evernote from multiple devices are much more likely to stick around and to eventually pay for the premium version. (source)
- Facebook's mobile users now account for more than half of its base, and they're more than twice as engaged as desktop users. (source)
Maybe Soup is currently being updated? I'll try again automatically in a few seconds...
