ICTworks by Inveneo

Goodluck Jonathan, the President of The Federal Republic of Nigeria is now on Facebook, cementing its role as the leading social networking site for Africans. So far, 56,704 people Like This on Facebook - I'm only surprised that's not 5.6 million.

And to those who think this is just a shallow PR move by the President, he has a retort for you:

I want to assure you that your feedback and comments on this page are important. I read them and they have influenced government's policy.

On Monday, a young Nigerian named Tuokpe Onuwaje who is resident in California made a comment on this page expressing disappointment that though California has the 7th largest econo...my in the world Nigeria does not have a consulate there yet we maintain one in Atlanta, Georgia which has a smaller economy. This youth further informed me that Nigeria had a property in California which was abandoned in the 80s.

Upon receipt of this information, I instructed the Nigerian Ambassador to the U.S to visit the property immediately and report back to me with a view to reopening our consulate in San Francisco California. I am pleased to tell Tuokpe Onuwaje and all fans of this page that the visit was concluded today.

I am also looking at other request made here and will within available resources and time take action or respond to your questions.
Thank you. GEJ

Keep up with Facebook in Africa - befriend ICTworks today!

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Facebook has finally launched Facebook Zero in 10 African countries (and 45 countries globally), and I say this is reason to celebrate!

While Kevin Donovan worries about the impact of Facebook's lack of privacy concerns on unsophisticated users and Erik Hersman bemoans Facebook Zero's impact on local software innovation, I'm with Steve Song - Facebook Zero is sexy.

Facebook Zero will drive ICT usage

Like I said back in February, Facebook Zero is web chang’aa for Africa, and like chang’aa, jobs will be lost, marriages will break up, and all manner of parents and elders will claim its a blight on the land as Facebook addiction spreads from urban elite out to every corner of Africa.

Facebooking will drive e-everything

Unlike actual chang’aa, Facebook Zero will also have a positive effect - its gonna increase demand for full Internet services for every category of content and hardware platform. All those new Facebook users will also become new news, ecommerce, employment, and education content consumers.

Facebook will get Africa online

Right now, many ICT companies in Africa don't even have websites. Why? Because their clients aren't online, so there is no need for them to be. Facebook Zero will change all that - anyone doing business will need to be on Facebook, just to prove existence to an inquisitive client. Now extrapolate that out to everyday life - Facebook will be the catalyst that gets African online when everything else to date has not.

We all will benefit from Facebook Zero

While I do worry about local software development (more than online privacy), I am not worried that Facebook Zero will stifle innovation. In fact, I think it will be a great boon to ICT innovation. Why? Because it will vastly increase the base on which innovation can occur. Instead of catering to a rounding error of a country's population, web developers will have the whole country to sell to.

Even hardware vendors will be inundated with Facebookers. Yes, mobile phones will lead in usage by far. But make no mistake. Those that get addicted to Facebook on mobiles will want the full screen upgrade - for Facebook and all the other Internet destinations.

And yes, even privacy will get a boost. Just wait till the first national scandal that breaks from a Facebook privacy setting change.

When last did you visit a cyber cafe?

Eight years ago, my answer would have been “right now”. I would have been writing/reading this on a computer in a cyber cafe. Right now however, I am lying somewhere comfortable in my home, whilst punching the soft keys on my laptop.

A few years ago in Accra, one could count more than ten Internet cafes between Vodafone (then Ghana Telecom)’s Head Office around Kwame Nkrumah Circle and BusyInternet on Ring Road Central. There were: True Internet, WWWPlus Mega Cafe, Krofa Internet Cafe, Java Internet Cafe, and several others, whose names I do not remember at this time.

Sadly, most of them have closed shop. Whilst several reasons could be offered for the failure of these enterprises, one cannot overlook the solid impact of mobile phones and mobile internet technologies.

My facebook profile on a Nokia smartphone

Mobile Websites

A quick glance at the traffic metrics website Alexa.com reveals that the most visited websites in Ghana include: Facebook, Yahoo, Google, YouTube, Live.com, Wikipedia, MSN, GhanaWeb, BBC. Email used to be the most popular online activity in this part of the world but social networking websites seem to have taken the lead in recent times. News websites come third. Thus, the composition of the ten most popular websites is not much of a surprise.

What is more interesting is that ALL the most popular websites have mobile versions of their services. Typing facebook.com into a mobile web browser for example, automatically redirects one to a mobile version of the popular social networking website. The mobile websites are stripped-down versions but offer a lot of functionality, in a layout small enough to fit into tiny mobile phone screens. It is thus now common place to find people get busy with chatting, twittering, reading the news & more, from their mobile phones.

Smartphones

Smartphones are raising the stakes and pushing more possibilities into our hands, literally. They now have enough processing power to stream high-definition video and enough memory to download and store databases of music, photos and videos from the Internet. Some smartphones come with full QWERTY keyboards and thus making typing a pleasure. Emailing, blogging, chatting can now be done virtually anywhere.

Lower entry costs

Personal Computers are no longer the exclusive preserve of the rich and well-educated. 10 years ago, the pricing of an average laptop was about $2,000. Not any more. New, more powerful, full-featured laptops are available today for as low as $700. Their smaller cousins (netbooks) even come at lower prices; mwave.com currently prices an ASUS EPC900B-BLU01X Eee netbook PC at only $209.99

Used and probably refurbished PCs even drag the entry costs lower, for obvious reasons.

USB Modems

Those little devices have further democratised internet connectivity. Where mobile phones and smartphones are not enough, one could easily buy a USB Modem for as low as 60 Ghana Cedis (about $42) and connect it to a desktop, laptop or netbook for a full Internet experience. MTN Ghana is currently offering their USB modem at that price. Gone are the days when one needed to obtain a hard-to-comeby fixed phone line from the telecom monopoly or a fixed wireless antenna pointed at the Internet Service Provider’s radio mast, or a VSAT satellite dish + modem. None of these came cheap.

The more spectacular thing is that 3.5G USB modems offer real broadband speeds today.

Back to those cyber cafes. The rapid closure of cyber cafes is not limited to Ghana. 234Next.com, a leading Nigerian news source, today published a report titled: Cyber cafes are vanishing:

"In those days, around 2000 and 2001, I used to go to cyber cafe, pay money to check my yahoo email. You know the feeling that time was powerful. I was the only one who could browse amongst my friends then. We will go to a cyber cafe and crowd around one system, five of us, and then the systems were always very slow, so if we hear that one cyber cafe somewhere was fast we will go there," said Solomon Edema, a computer engineer. "Now, all of us browse with our phones. I also used my laptop. I have not gone to a cyber cafe for over a year now," Mr. Edema, adds.

Nowadays, the proliferation of computers and 3G mobile phones, including the famous China phones, has resulted in cheaper prices. As a result more people can afford internet-enabled phones. Similarly, the competition in the telecom industry has also led the telecom firms out-doing one another in offering cheap modems and internet access. Traders at Computer Village, Ikeja, now offer software that enable free internet access on laptops and mobile phones.

It is clear that mobile phones, are pushing cyber cafes out, the same way public phone booths and “communication centres” have become endangered species. What waits to be seen is how long the few cyber cafes that remain would last. Would they close shop or evolve their business model? Time would tell.

The Digital Lifestyle of Connected Nigerians Advance Report survey is a collaborative effort between the Centre for Information Technology and Development and Paradigm Initiative Nigeria, and it focuses on what Nigerians (who are currently resident in Nigeria) are doing to get (and/or stay) online, what internet services they use and other important questions.

Digital Lifestyle of Connected Nigerians Advance Report

For example, how many computers does the average connected Nigerian have? What internet service provider(s) are they subscribed to? What do they do when power supply is cut off? Where do they consider their primary place of access: home, office or public café?

Here are key findings, as reported by WebTrends Nigeria:

• 80% if the respondents users Yahoo! mail.
• 36% uses Gmail.
• Almost half of the respondents subscribe to an access plan that allows them to stay online all day long.
• 1 in every 2 internet users own generators that allow them to stay online
• About a quarter of the respondent are unemployed. (Please note that majority of the respondents (41%) are high school graduates)
• 42% claim to have suffered bodily harm due to the length of time spent online at one time, with various symptoms such as back ache, wrist pain, etc.
• Two in every three respondents stated that internet access has had an impact on their career/job
• 1 in every 3 agree that their tendency to stay online has made them replace social contacts with online communication.
• Half of the respondents have completed online transactions but only 4% have fallen victims of any form of cybercrime.
• 80% of the respondents have either a laptop a desktop computer.
• 28% uses cybercafe to gain access while 27% gain access from work.
• a whopping 57% spends between 1-5 hours online daily.
• 89% of respondents uses Facebook
• 21% uses MySpace while 20% uses LinkedIn
• 41% updates their Social network status once in a while,  only 11% updates always.

Without a doubt, social networking has changed the technology landscape in places like Europe and the United States. But what is the role of this technology in the Global South? The February #ICT4D Twitter Chat focused on this during a lively 90-minute dialogue between technologists, implementers, and others in the ICT4D world. (Take the Chat Survey)

1. Social networking is driving ICT adoption, but which tools, why, and to what extent?
2. How can social networking increase donor, implementer, recipient participation in development?
3. What are the gaps and limitations in social networking engagement - where doesn't it work?

What social networking technology is involved?

Vincenzo Cosenza recently published a map reinforcing the dominance of Facebook as a powerhouse in the social networking world. And with new features like Facebook Zero, its also changing the way people interact with the Internet.

While Facebook is the major player in social networking, more local and regional sites like Mixi and Hi5 also have a presence in the Global South. Many others are being rapidly launched, even using other platforms, such as SMS. In fact, on Twitter, 50% of tweets are not in English.

Older technology tools like email can be used to connect and communicate with existing social networks. Still, the idea of the social networking site as a stand-alone platform has undeniably taken hold in the developing world - 25% of Kenyans who are online do not have email addresses yet 80% of all Kenyan Internet users are on Facebook.

Social changes increase participation in development work

Not surprisingly, this month's roundtable seemed to reach a consensus around the value of social networking for international development work. Social networking has tremendous potential to give voice to the people on the "receiving" end of international assistance.

It's also helping implementers in the actual work of development. Organizations are using different social networks for different purposes - Facebook is seen as a great for public outreach and youth engagement, while Twitter is better for peer exchange and identifying new partnerships.

This is one reason that ICTworks has a Facebook empowerment strategy.

Limitations on social networking

The largest constraint on social networking's influence and reach is the limited Internet infrastructure of the Global South. Communities that are not online do not feel the impact. In addition, socio-economic barriers like literacy and education can limit adoption and growth in connected societies.

Also be warned that big numbers of Facebook or Twitter followers doesn't directly translate into meaningful interactions. In fact, during the #ICT4D Twitter Chat, we came across one group that's steadfastly held its own against the social media tide: the "big men" of Africa - ministers and other government decision makers.

Reaching government decision makers with social networks

There is a still a strong culture among government leaders that "big men" don't use computers. The feeling that typing is for clerks or students. However, even if government officials are not using Facebook or Twitter professionally, they may be online in their personal life.

Regardless of personal status, they are listening to what their employees, direct reports, and family hear though online social networks. After all, they're "big men" because of their skill in reading offline social networks.

Here are a few early adopters:

• President of Togo - 4,997 fans
• President of Rwanda - 6,365 fans
• President of Côte d'Ivoire - 1,576 fans

Social networking future impact on development

Social networking technology is disruptive - no longer are donors and "big men" in government the only voices that communities have; those parties can be bypassed directly to launch grassroots movements. Indeed, many government and NGO leaders are reluctant, unable, or unwilling to use technology and are in fact being "leapfrogged" by the people they serve.

As today's youth who are growing up aware of social networking technology (even in the developing world) become the leaders and decision-makers of tomorrow, the role of global communication in "mainstream" international development will grow even more rapidly. The fast-paced spread and dropping costs of mobile technology will only feed the fire.

Michael Downey is a graduate student in human-computer interaction and ICT4D at Indiana University School of Informatics, and leads the Community Infrastructure Team for OpenMRS.