On the social networking site Twitter, there are many people who talk about ICT4D, and many who talk about Africa. But there are few who talk only and consistently about IC4D in Africa. So to try and cut through the clutter and hone in on the relevant voices for ICTworks, back in August I started a FollowFriday list in the ICTworks Network.

While that effort did find a few new voices, it wasn't very effective at sharing these voices with others. Then just yesterday, Twitter turned on a "list" functionality - you can now make your own lists of Twitter people, and share this list with others. And now we have:

@ICT_works/ICT4D-Africa-Twitters

You can now follow ICTworks's ICT4D Africa Twitters list in Twitter, which will give you a high-quality, real-time understanding of what is happening in Africa around information and communication technologies for development.

But by no means is this list fixed - members may come and go, depending on their focus and tweet quality. If you know of others that we should follow, please let me know. Self-referral is okay too - just add yourself in the comments below.

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Read more

Hey Everybuddy,

Just putting together the curriculum for next spring's course on ICT4D design at Stanford, and was thinking I should start visiting conferences throughout this year to soak up some perspectives and interview and "bag and tag" some speakers and guest lecturers for the course.

Any recommendations on conferences worth checking out? Best ?: Where are you planning to head conference-wise over the next 9 months?

Cheers,

Lucky

Recently on Twitter, I asked a #FollowFriday question: Who else should I be following for ICT4D in Africa? Those that primarily post news and information relevant to deploying computer system in rural areas.

Heather LaGarde said she was assembling list too, and wanted to share. So I've posted mine here:

http://twitter.com/wanjiku
http://twitter.com/phat_controller
http://twitter.com/stevesong
http://twitter.com/niyyie
http://twitter.com/jamesbt
http://twitter.com/jongos
http://twitter.com/whiteafrican
http://twitter.com/mberg

Of course, I would humbly suggest the following as well:

http://twitter.com/ICT_Works
http://twitter.com/wayan_vota

The Good News:

China's direct investment in Africa rose 81 percent in the first half year from the same period last year to US$552 million. Chinese enterprises signed US$22.45 billion of new labor service contracts in Africa, up 25 percent year on year, and completed US$11.53 billion of business volume, up 61.1 percent year on year.

The Bad News:

Trade between China and African countries, however, slumped 30.5 percent to US$37.07 billion in first six months because of the global economic downturn, according to a report released by the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) Tuesday.

http://www.lawinfochina.com/News/News_Detail.asp?Id=7626

On Appfrica, there is a fascinating conversation about "eliminating" the countries with the lowest contribution to global GDP:

Why is it not a surprise that so many of these countries are in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia? But why is it a surprise that there are a full 81 countries on this list - representing nearly 3 billion people - and that they contribute a total of only 5% to worldwide economic activity?!

(Follow the link below to read the entire blog post, but see also this list of the countries, in reverse order of magnitude):

Zimbabwe (1), Burundi, DR Congo, Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, Eritrea, Malawi, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Niger, Afghanistan, Togo, Guinea, Uganda, Madagascar, the Central African Republic, Nepal, Myanmar (Burma), Rwanda, Mozambique, East Timor, the Gambia (2), Bangladesh, Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Mali, Lesotho, Ghana, Haiti, Tajikistan, the Comoros, Cambodia, Laos, Benin, Kenya, Chad, the Solomon Islands, Kyrgyzstan, India (3), Nicaragua, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Mauritania, Pakistan, Senegal, Sao Tome and Principe, Ivory Coast, Zambia, the Yemen, Cameroon, Djibouti, Papua New Guinea, Kiribati, Nigeria (4), Guyana, the Sudan, Bolivia, Moldova, Honduras, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Bhutan, Egypt (5), Vanuatu, Tonga, Paraguay, Morocco, Syria, Swaziland, Samoa, Guatemala, Georgia, the Congo, Iraq, Armenia, Jordan, Cape Verde, the Maldives, Fiji and Namibia (6).

http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2009/07/02/397-eliminating-the-bottom-5/