Our executive Nii Ayertey Aryeh, represented us at the event and here is the video evidence.

“We as bloggers recognize the importance of guarding the press freedom we enjoy today… We have a keen interest in putting Ghanaian stories online”

This is a photo of the speakers. One of my favorite Swedish bloggers Underbaraclara spoke about Blogs and Business, she is the tall brunette second from left. Pic borrowed from Underbaraclaras blogpost on the event.

Now it is time for the fun part, the photos from the event!

If you use these photos, please state the source.

As the founder of BloggingGhana, I knew about the scale of the event, but as I have not been directly involved in the preparations I had somehow not expected the massive interest for blogging in Ghana! I was scheduled to be the opening speaker, first thing in the morning, with a short welcoming speech. For a Saturday morning with a Ghanaian crowd, I hadn’t really expected people to be present… but when entering the room, it was almost full!

Kafui writes a very detailed account including his highlights, but I like how he – just like me – was overwhelmed!

 Almost 400 participants ‘invaded’ the venue — the burning passion and quest for knowledge was simply overwhelming.

I had awakenings, epiphanies and inspirations throughout the event.

Ofoli-Kwei got the push he needed to start up his own blog,

 I’ve spent many a night brooding over the idea of having my own blog but the like we say in Ghana the ”vim” has never been enough.

But then I attended Blogging Ghana’s #blogcamp12 and the vim level shot up like crazy!

Nina enjoyed the break-out session on Women in Social Media,

At first we weren’t sure how many of us would be there, so we rearranged chairs into a small circle, which we enlarged a couple of times as more joined.  Although sometimes shyly, and often very quietly, participants started expressing their fears and concerns about women blogging and what they should/could talk about.

In house poet AntiRhythm summarized the event like this:

 Imagine my sweet surprise on seeing so many still-growing minds with yards of yen for social medial relevance at BlogCamp 2012; relevance as content creators and catchers too. Ghana’s rising the right way – led by the youth.

For more reactions, see the Twitter hashtag #BlogCamp12. Pics to come.

Now BloggingGhana has to quickly recoup and think about how we can harness this enormous interest for social media in Ghana! Thanks to all who came and made this day a loud-sounding voice of  a new generation! 

Hence, tomorrow I expect to

1. get up early (I’m the first speaker)
2. meet some interesting people
3. introduce some of them to BloggingGhana
4. learn more about blogging
5. get inspired to create more local content

See you tomorrow!

We got a partner for Jimmy, the guinea fowl we already had. Then Jimmy turned out to be a female. Luckily the new one was a male!

Then the other day, when one of the hens was missing, we decided to poke around to see if Adwoa Smart or Serwaa Akoto had laid eggs somewhere secret, and under some plantain leaves we found nine eggs, with a hen on  top!

So now we are excitingly hoping for a string of chicks.

To Be Continued…

Ironically, the meeting I had scheduled with my official supervisor was cancelled as I missed our deadline last week. These are the three types of supervisors I have managed to get for myself totally outside the structures of  the university.

1. The Mentor

Here is a person who knows university politics, who remembers what it was like being in your too large PhD shoes and always shows support interspersed with some practical advice.

Will ask you: How are you?

2. The Senior Researcher

The Senior researcher has seen it all before and will suggest you look at the bigger picture, read the classics and start planning for the next step of your career.

Will ask you: What are your main variables?

3. The Visionary

The visionary points you to interdisciplinary related readings that you didn’t know existed, briefs you about the newest methods on the block with a YouTube video and asks some uncomfortable questions about your work.

Will ask you: Have you read Spivak?

Ideally, I think the culture of the academy starts and begins with sharing information, roadmaps and ideas, however I am still amazed at the generosity at which my informal supervisors have approached and challenged my work. If you read this, thank you!

Clara is THE blogger in Sweden. She is typically Swedish in that she loves nature and works with media. Some of her topics seem contradictory, but Underbara Clara ties them together in a “modern Swedish media mother”-kind of way.

Keywords: Feminist, recipes and fashion, sustainable living, children, countryside.

Elsa Billgren

If Underbara Clara represents Swedishness and everyday living in the countryside, Elsa Billgren blogging for Swedish Elle, is her opposite. Her life embodies glamour. It is high heels, restaurant brunches, downtown apartments and beautiful friends.

Keywords: Champagne, Oysters, Vintage shopping, Stockholm by night and red lipstick.

Onekligen

Lisa Bjärbo is an author, something-in-publishing, a vegetarian and a mother of two and her blog is about all of that. With humor!

Keywords: Children, books, freelance, whats-for-dinner, irony.

Photography plays an important role in the three blogs discussed above and serves as inspiration for us who reads their blogs religiously. These blogs are extremely popular in Sweden and these entrepreneurs makes a living off their blogs, either through adverts on the blog and/or the branding she creates for herself through her blog – with spinn-offs like books, magazine articles, radio shows, TV appearances etc.

Reading their well-written, beautiful and entrepreneurial blogs provide the best possible dream-away-kind-of-entertainment for this blogger in Ghana!

I have decided to do an electronic survey for many reasons. Being able to ensure confidentiality  (which will improve the reliability of my study) and keep admin to a minimum (which will improve my personal economy) are the top two reasons. I am using an open source software, LimeSurvey, hosted on LimeService for my survey.

Last month, I did a pilot of the first version of the questionnaire. On a Friday, I walked into the ICT building, cleared my voice and asked the students that were sitting there to navigate to my survey URL and fill my questionnaire. 15 students volunteered. Now I am trying to understand what to do with the information I got. (Most of the responding students have not been abroad, however a majority wants to migrate, most for a graduate degree, only one imagines working abroad in five years time. Half of the respondents hold a passport, only one a valid visa, one in five have gotten a visa application rejected, a majority plan to apply for a visa as a student, a majority of those who indicate wanting to migrate say they plan to be away for a shorter period of time (less than 3 years) and most that they will  like to return ***Read this write up with caution as the sample is very small and not randomized or controlled in any way*** ).

1. Adding questions  - what gaps were left by the current questionnaire?

So far I have come up with that financial situation need better specification, year group (although second year students are targeted it would be interesting to see how answers varies, if at all, for the occational other-year-student) and maybe more questions about visa applications and why they were denied in so many cases.

2. Clarifying questions – were some answers ambiguous because of wording/answering options?

Here I have some work to do. Some questions allow for multiple choice (“check  all that apply” etc) others for ranking. I find that sometimes those answers were difficult to analyze. However choosing one option also hides interesting nuances. Hm.

3. Dropping questions – were some questions unnecessary?

I have a bunch of questions on “local” aspirations, coming from the idea that if local labor market opportunities are not advertised as well as the foreign options, the latter look like your only way forward. But as they are not mutually exclusive, now I do not know. Another idea was to similarly tone down migration as “the only option” in my study as to not get biased answers. Does it really further my study on migration aspirations if someone is knowledgeable (or not) about local opportunities? Cutting questions out also allows for space to put new more focused questions in and, even better, not replace all them as to make the questionnaire more brief.

One of the more interesting preliminary “results” is the pie-chart above. When  asking students if they had taken the first step toward studying abroad – obtaining information – two out of three students answered yes.

This tells me my study is looking at something relevant for Ghanaian youth.

This post is a Migration Monday post, taking you behind the scenes of doctoral studies in Ghana and giving me the opportunity to write about what I do in less formal language.

Everywhere you could see artsy types with cameras and I was proudly one of them. This is what I snapped:

Also read about Last year’s Chale Wote festival.