It’s time for our monthly meeting - Stammtisch - again, this time even punctual one month after our last one - Stammtisch #4.
This meeting is for curious people in Vienna to find out about ICT4D in general, what we do, how to help and generally just to have a nice evening. We’d be happy to get to know a lot of new people.
Just recently, via Thomas Strasser, I found out about Pioneers of Change - a coaching program for young Austrians with a vision to change the world, organized by Plenum.
I applied with ICT4D.at as my project and was taken! I’m really looking forward now to the eight modules - first one already starting next week. I expect from the program to learn to manage ICT4D.at even better and get some projects in the ICT4D context going. Also I am certain that this will initiate a diverse networks of people with sustainable initiatives working for a better world - social entrepreneurs if you will.
Thomas was also taken - same as Georg Urschitz who together with Thomas built up the IT course at Don Bosco School Sunyani.
So - great opportunity, great company, looking forward to it and I’ll keep you updated on my advances.
We are proud to announce that our flickr group Images FOR Africa reached 10.000 pieces some days ago. From the Images FOR Africa description:
We want to collect ‘Images of Africa’ that are ‘free to use’ according to a Creative Commons License: Social documentary, structures, public transport, village life, poverty, nature, wildlife … everything!
There is no special purpose other than spreading/providing Africa related, CC licensed photos in media:
so they can be used free of charge by e.g.:
- Africa related NGOs/NPOS to do proper media-work,
- local business initiatives for their web presence,
- upcoming journalists,
- …
We took this round lot of 10.000 and created a flickr gallery where we curate the best picks from the group. Based on this beautiful sample we are looking forward to print some shots and try to organize an exhibition.
Click on the image to get to the gallery:
Just a short remark on the group: A lot of people add their images ‘blind’ and don’t license the images as “creative commons” before they post to the group. We assume that these flickr users at least read the group rules but don’t know about creative commons and want to support the cause anyway.
If you want to use the picture for some purpose, just write the user who shot it. Describe what you will use it for and reference to the group rules. If the user is not ok with it, we will have to remove the picture from our group pool. Just send a message to our flickr account in that case.
The first event after the last quarterly review was a really significant one - the World Bank Day @ mHealth Summit at 26 October 2009 - another event organized by our partners from the eDevelopment Thematic Group (eTG) of the World Bank. We blogged about it very detailed - with six posts - and covered it on Twitter.
In November Hello Africa continued to tour the world with a screening in Wales at the May You Live in Interesting Times festival. Later that month we covered the Development Marketplace 2009 event, where “100 ideas to save the planet” were presented, with roughly a quarter of them being funded by the Global Environment Facility, the foreign ministry of Denmark, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the World Bank Group. Oliver, our man in Germany took part in the World Social Web Dialogue in Berlin, which aims to create a standard for exchanging data between NGOs. Furthermore I attended events of the Austrian NGO Südwind - Clean IT - the way to a fair trade PC and one monthly meeting of theirs, focusing on Web 2.0 and new technologies. That was already in December though.
December also started with a very nice present of Oliver Ruhm, designer at Zeughaus Brand Identity Desig, who rebrushed our page design. Except the Donate-button on the top it’s not implemented yet as we all are very busy, but if somebody would be willing to volunteer for that, we’d be grateful!
We had a big meeting with Martin T, Martin K, Paul, Oliver, Fritz, me (Florian) and even two new members - Thomas and Isabella - taking part. Also, we are working on grant applications, scientific papers, new events and our internal structure - more details to be announced when the time is ripe.
February has just started - but we are looking forward to our next Stammtisch next Thursday - and hope to see a lot of interested people there!
A lot of things to come, and we are still motivated and eager for new challenges.
After four months break since Stammtisch #3 took place, we would like to go on with this kind of informal meeting format and therefore would like to invite you to our 4th Stammtisch.
A lot has happened and we have even grown in numbers - so come by to meet us, find out about how our projects go, tell us what you are currently working on or what you’d be interested to do and spend a nice evening with like-minded people.
We provide free education in the field of Web Development to a small number of talented and motivated students of poor background in Zanzibar, Tanzania.
Our goal is to help build the personal careers of our graduates as well as to kickstart a local web development community. After getting to know the place and the people during a support project for the Zanzibits School for Film and Multimedia in 2009, we firmly believe that there is both talent and demand for professional web work in Zanzibar.[from the Zanzicode page]
We are currently preparing the second round of classes for 12 more students, starting in January 2010.
If you are interested in getting involved the project - as sponsor or guest lecturer or if you are in the area and just want to say hello - please contact us.
Christmas time has just begun and the first donation has already been made!
ICT4D.at would like to thank Oliver Ruhm from the Austrian design company Zeughaus Brand Identity Design for the rebrush of our page design.
We uploaded the designs to FlickR - below you can see the slideshow of the set. It shows the design evolution to come to the final result.
We’re really happy with the result and we will implement the new design as soon as possible. If you have any remarks on it, we’re happy to read them in the comments.
In the mean time there was not too much going on with ICT4D.at - everybody was busy with something else. I am looking forward to an internal meeting in the beginning of December though, where we will set the path for the coming weeks and months.
One main thing we are currently working on is the preparation for the second round of our Zanzibits support project. Our representative Fritz Grabo in Zanzibar is having rehearsals to choose future students and is working on improving the infrastructure on the ground - repairing stuff, improving furniture and several other things. Here in Austria we are looking for sponsors for the project - so if you want to support a small-scale project for capacity building in Zanzibar, don’t hesitate to contact us.
Our documentary Hello Africa continues to tour the world. Previously shown in Accra, Ghana, at the Maker Faire Africa event, 14-16 of August (Which we attended and covered in detail here) , and just recently we were honoured to be invited and have it screened at a festival event called May You Live in Interesting Times, in Cardiff, Wales, 22-24 of October. This was a three-day festival “that celebrates the latest intriguing uses of everyday technology and social innovation, enabled through shared ideas”, and the film was screened daily on their festival hub. Here’s a brief description of the core idea behind the festival:
.
“With technology now firmly placed in the everyday we have put together a festival programme that explores how participation is increasingly the driving force behind much digital content. Mass-technology has enabled individuals and communities to become connected and share information.”
.
Unfortunately we had no possibility to attend this great event ourselves, but according to Carolina Vasquez who is a festival coordinator there, the movie was highly appreciated by the audience and a “great success”. Check out the screening program here, and the Hello Africa entry here.
RSS feed
