ICTworks by Inveneo

About VC4A Questions:

VC4Africa seeks to connect entrepreneurs with the network, capital and knowledge they need to build promising businesses on the continent. We have members from 156 countries that network via our online platforms and offline via our VC4Africa Meetups. Our matchmaking site VC4Africa.biz is a tool for entrepreneurs to publish their venture and connect with possible business partners and investors. Our matchmaking program further supports entrepreneurs in their business planning and support entrepreneurs seeking venture finance. So how do we support the community with knowledge?

Building a business is hard and having access to the right knowledge and information is critical. Unfortunately, in the African space information is too often lacking. What do the changes in local tax code mean for the tech sector? What are the import duties for heavy machinery? What are the key points investors look for when reviewing a cash flow prognosis? What are the legal issues I need to consider when expanding across borders? VC4A Questions is a collection of questions and answers created, edited, and organized by the VC4A community. Together we are building a community generated database of knowledge. A few points that make VC4Africa Questions & Answers unique:

A Growing Knowledge Base

People use VC4A questions to document their African business adventures. Over time, the database of knowledge should grow and grow until almost everything that anyone wants to know about doing business in Africa is available in the system. The information is organized, the history of the questions is archived and the information is freely accessible for anyone with the same question today or tomorrow.

Community Managed

Each question makes use of tags that make them easier to find across multiple search queries. This also helps members link new questions with existing discussions and further centralizes the conversation. Members can find similar questions they can borrow from when outlining additional context. Each question and answer is also rated and sorted by the users. This ensures that only the most pertinent questions rise to the top of the landing page and search results. It helps push prominent issues into the forefront and crowds out any unwanted messages or noise.

Follow Discussions

Members can follow topics they are interested in. Any updates are automatically forwarded per e-mail and this helps maintain an active dialogue. Members, the VC4Africa team and officers can also ‘recommend experts’ with certain questions and encourage them to share their expertise and input. This further serves to mobilize an active network and adds to the growing knowledge base.

VC4A Reputations

VC4A Questions is linked directly to member profiles. The system tracks who posted a question, who responded, how many responses were recorded and whether or not the questions and answers were valued by the VC4A community. This feedback is part of a reputation the user builds via the system. This helps other users appreciate the quality and level of a user’s contributions and serves to recognize the members who contribute the most and are otherwise experts on certain subjects or specific fields of interest.

Moving forward,

Please visit the new section of the website http://vc4africa.biz/questions/. We encourage you to take a look and play around with this new tool. Please add your own questions or share feedback with the community. We look forward to building this resource together and for the benefit of the entrepreneurs and investors working to build promising businesses on the continent.

Regards and happy networking!
The VC4A Team

Inveneo seeks a talented and motivated intern who is committed to utilizing information and communication technologies to increase social and economic advancement in the developing world. This is an amazing opportunity for a dedicated self-starter who wishes to pursue a career in ICT4D.

The successful applicant with have an understanding of technology tools - from computers to mobile phones and their related software applications - and an intense drive to learn how they can be used to create sustainable change in rural and underserved communities. A passion for Africa, experience living in developing countries, and French language skills are preferred.

The goal of the intern will be to expand expertise in sustainable ICTs for the developing world through passionate conversations using ICTworks.org as a base and expanding the dialogue into relevant social networking platforms. Blogging, tweeting, and Facebooking, will be supplemented with in-person meetings and conference attendance to build the ICTworks community of practice.

The internship is unpaid - but not unrewarding. While the intern will be a volunteer, they will be compensated with unparalleled exposure and access to leading ICT4D practitioners both online and in person. They will participate in exclusive, high-level meetings and gain priceless networking and community building skills.

We require at least 10 hours a week commitment - a relatively small investment that can jump-start a rewarding ICT4D career. If the intern is a student, Inveneo will work with the University or college of the intern to provide the necessary paperwork for college credit. The internship is based in San Francisco or Washington DC.

To be considered for this opportunity, applicants must submit the following items to internships@inveneo.org:

1. A cover letter telling us:
   a. Why ICTworks' mission excites you
   b. A list of (and links to) your online content
2. A resume showing past work experience that's relevant to this position

About Inveneo & ICTworks

ICTworks.org aims to be a premier resource for sharing and expanding knowledge on appropriate information and communication technologies (ICT) and the implementation processes that can make them sustainable in rural and underserved communities across the developing world.

ICTworks is an initiative of Inveneo, a non-profit social enterprise whose mission is to get the tools of information and communications technology (ICT) into the hands of organizations and people who need them most: those in rural and underserved communities in the developing world. Since 2006, Inveneo and our 64 Inveneo Certified ICT Partners (ICIPs) have delivered innovative solutions and brought access to life-changing ICTs to more than 1,500,000 people in over 500 communities in 25 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Haiti.

What is the impact of ICT on the developing world? Will expanded Internet access bring a revolution in business revenues and social advancement? How can ICT implementers translate technology headlines into practical, actionable activity?

With ICTworks we want to share expertise in sustainable ICTs for the developing world and we need your help. We need you to Guest Post with your ideas, opinions, and know-how.

Look, I'm on ICTworks!

How to Guest Post on ICTworks

1. See tweet, gadget, or article that makes you think?
2. Email us your thoughts as a short article
3. Don;t worry about spelling or grammar - we don't!
4. We'll publish the Guest Post on ICTworks
5. You revel in the fame and glory of ICTworks authorship

Yes, its that's simple! So what are you waiting for? Look for ideas that excite you and then email us today!

Now that ICTworks is up and running, its time for us to start adding more bells and whistles to the site, really making it what we hope - a community for knowledge sharing.

Giving it zing

To do that, we want to introduce two new functionalities:

1. Project Database: We want to mashup Google Maps with project descriptions to allow ICTworks registered users to build a community project map like this.
2. Profiles & Groups: We want to expand Drupal's inherent Profile and Groups modules to make them more dynamic and central to ICTworks, fostering a better sense of community

We also want to have the ICTworks theme spruced up. You may notice there are a few bugs and the theme is lacking pizazz.

If you're a Drupal themer or coder, or know one, we'd love to hear from you. We have basic requirements docs already, and would love to have code crunched by Christmas.