Interview for Social Media Week Lagos

Screenshot 2015-01-27 11.31.23Today I am interviewed for Social Media Week Lagos on how BloggingGhana started , what has happened since and my view on social media in Ghana. 

Q: Against other major countries like South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya where a majority of its youth are using digital and social media to grow, strengthen their businesses, and to move the country forward. Where does Ghana square up? 

A: Yeah, the same thing is happening in Ghana. I think the development is best described as revolutionary; now you can run a successful business from home powered by Instagram, through applications such as Google Maps you can find things you could not find before, by using Facebook and Twitter young people in Ghana are increasing their political engagement. Maybe a difference to the African countries you mentioned, Ghana is much smaller. It has several advantages, one is the tech scene is like a family. We all know each other.

I am happy to see that social media communities are really taking root on the continent, there is a SMW for Copenhagen, London and LA and many other places as well, and in Ghana, we have our BlogCamp that launched last week Friday.

See all of my answers here.

 

 

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Upcoming BloggingGhana Events!

BloggingGhana feb 2014BloggingGhana had a wonderful meeting in February (see photo above) and when looking forward, many exciting things are happening: BlogCamp is around the corner, we are getting ready to move into our new Social Media Hub (see the film here!) and soon new executives (maybe you?) will steer the ship!

Here is a list of important dates:
 
March 
Sunday 23, 3-6 PM March meet up – our first meeting in the new hub! (From now on we will meet there unless otherwise indicated!)
April
Saturday 5, 3-6 PM, Pre-BlogCamp Event with guests
Sunday 6, Midnight, Deadline for Executive nominations (form to follow) and proposals.
Saturday, 12 All Day BlogCamp and the Social Media Awards!
May
Sunday 11, 4-6 PM, Annual General Meeting (AGM). Come and vote! FOR PAYING MEMBERS ONLY, pay by April 12th to participate! Membership details here.
 
Please RSVP to events and find more details on BloggingGhana’s FB page!
This post can also be found on BloggingGhana’s blog.

 

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Victoria Okoye on Accra in the Guardian: BloggingGhana Mentioned!

BloggingGhana was last week featured in the Guardian by their Blogger of the Week, our own Victoria Okoye/ African Urbanism.

“There’s BloggingGhana, an organised group of bloggers hitting on everything from everyday issues to politics, art, fashion to leading initiatives for greater transparency in elections, government and social action.”

Screenshot 2014-03-12 12.23.13Read Victoria’s whole article here.

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Did President Mahama Go Too Far? State of the Nation 2014 #SOTNGhana

Screenshot 2014-02-28 11.30.30This week, the Ghanaian mediascape was cluttered with comments about the state of the nation address, held on Tuesday. All well and good. The problem was, most commentators were upset about the light tone of the speech, at a time that is hard for the wo/man on the street.

See for instance CitiFM or InformGhana‘s storify-summaries of the discussions on Twitter.

Read the whole State of the Nation address here on the presidency website.

Interestingly, my last post here on the blog was on Ghanaian political humor and I personally felt the president just “joined the grammar” (“Mr. Speaker, who said ‘Tweaa’?”) and spoke about politics in the most Ghanaian way possible, with some jokes and a hearty laughter.

But clearly, I was in minority. Most commentators sighed (or even booed) and said that our politicians have lost touch with the reality on ground. What do you think?

 

Pic borrowed from InformGhana, BloggingGhana’s new project.

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BloggingGhana in 2014: #MoreStories

This year, my organisation BloggingGhana is taking a giant leap forward by getting our own physical space: Ghana’s first social media hub. But we need help to create opportunities for #morestories to be told. Over the next month and a few more days, we are trying to crowd-source USD 10 000 for our new office. You can be a part of our success!

See our video (featuring my colleague Edward and myself!)

Donate on Indiegogo!

 

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BloggingGhana is 5 Years!

Screen Shot 2013-09-19 at 5.40.35 PM

Ghana’s first organization for social media users, BloggingGhana, announces its five year anniversary. BloggingGhana started with eight members back in July 2008 and has since met monthly and today lists 250 blogs and has 40 active members.

 

Highlights include founding Ghana’s first social media awards, moderating online discussions around the 2012 elections through the GhanaDecides project and holding social media workshops for organizations around the country including the yearly BlogCamp conference.

 

Co-founder and Chair of BloggingGhana, Kajsa Hallberg Adu says:

– I am happy the group of individuals that came together in 2008 is today a tool for positive change in Ghana. We have just concluded the GhanaDecides project which by all measures was a success and we are in the planning stage for upcoming projects using technology for more voices to be heard. We also welcome new members!

 

The anniversary is celebrated with a birthday party on Sat 21 Sept, 2013 together with Bless The Mic, a platform for upcoming artists in Ghana, also celebrating five years. Bless The Mic will be celebrating with a string of events starting the same weekend. At the party BloggingGhana’s new aggregator website will be launched.

 

Learn more about BloggingGhana on BloggingGhana.org or follow us on Facebook.com/bloggingghana or on Twitter @Bloggingghana

 

***

Kajsa Hallberg Adu 0249187210 kajsa@bloggingghana.org

Edward Amartey-Tagoe 0244709575 edward@bloggingghana.org

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ALERT: Chale Wote 2013!

ALERT. ALERT. ALERT. Do not miss this year’s street art festival in Jamestown in Accra. Happening this weekend, 7-8 September. Find (printable) program here (PDF). Personally, I find it hard to chose among the many events, but will likely just go and stroll around with my family and enjoy the surprises around each street corner…

This minute-and-a-half video gives you a feel of the amazing event.

Superproductive art collective AccraDOTAlt are the organizers. This year, BloggingGhana is among the official collaborators. Other involved partners are: REDD Kat Pictures, Acrilex, Urban Republic, FashionistaGH, and Ghana Urban Platform.

Chale Wote 2013 is the third flamboyant, spectacular and fun yearly festival, see my posts from 2011 and 2012.

See you there!

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End of Elections 2012: #TheVerdict of the #ElectionPetition is in!

Yesterday in the early afternoon around 1 PM most of Ghana was tuned into a radio channel or had its eyes glued to a TV screen. Since morning, we had been waiting for the verdict of the supreme court on the election petition. The judges came in and after a few minutes, the courtroom crowd stood up. 8 months of questions about the leadership of Ghana was over.

NDC and Mahama had been confirmed as winners of the presidential election.

Canadian journalist Iain Merlow was in a restaurant as the verdict came in:

““They say we are not meant to celebrate,” the man said, as he sat down for lunch, reflecting the weeks of media discussions about the need for peace, about the need for both sides to accept the verdict without violence or rallies, without over-the-top celebrations or protests. At one point, there was a pretty vigorous media debate about whether there was actually too much talk of peace, whether some were being slightly less than genuine with their peace talk, and whether there was even a need for it all.”

Nnenna followed #theVerdict on social media:

“Oh là là, Ghana Tweeps nailed it. They took pictures, they reported. They tweeted, retweeted, shared, and kept the hype. While we waited for the judges to give #TheVerdict, we even got to the point of asking people to share what they were doing while waiting.. It will be interesting to see a MashUp of the tweets on both tags: #ElectionPetition and #TheVerdict.”

Kwaku Spider checked out the headlines.

“Judgement Day is here”

“D-Day”

Kofi Annan suggested:

“This success must not blind us to the flaws in our electoral system that the judicial review has brought to light. All concerned need to work energetically to ensure that these flaws are addressed through the necessary institutional reforms.

We have a bright future to build together, as the Ghanaian people. That future begins today.”

And taking into account that future, today, some of us bloggers met online in a GhanaDecides sponsored G+ Hangout to discuss the verdict and the election petition’s impact on our country. It was a very constructive discussion with many different opinions shared and challenged. 

The discussion is about 1 hour. For a summary, see this Storify put together by Jemila who also moderated the discussion.

The elections 2012 are officially over!

 

 

 

 

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#BlogCamp13: Still Overwhelmed

BlogCamp 13 collageSaturday 23 March 2013, Ghana’s second blogcamp or conference for bloggers took place. In the evening Ghana’s forst Social MEdia awards were held at the same venue. It was amazing and two days later, I am still tired and slightly overwhelmed.

I will not tell you about everything that happened (Kinna did that already very well), neither will I talk about my trip to the venue (far less interesting than Kofi Larbi’s), but just offer some thoughts – as one of the cofounders of BloggingGhana – the organizing body behind the event:

1. Do we really have 400 people plus in Ghana interested in blogging to the point they spend a whole day, and transport costs, learning more? Amazing!

2. BloggingGhana has been about friendships since the very beginning. I have made some of my most important friendships in this group and what made me happy on Saturday was that new friends seemed to be all around. Many people also met their Twitter or Blog friends in person for the first time. I had some experiences like that as well! Kinna wrote:

I wasn’t privy to any such conversation, but I’m sure there were all manners of hooking up going on! Lots of smiling, lots of hugs, some shade and a world of happiness!

That was indeed the feeling!

3. I wasn’t expecting feeling moved by that the US ambassador came by, but his speech contextualized BloggingGhana in ways I haven’t fully before realized. Hearing things like this constituted an aha-moment for me (click on link above for the whole speech):

We applaud Blogging Ghana for its efforts to encourage hundreds of Ghanaians to express themselves on a broad array of topics affecting daily life. …We support events such as this because we know that honing communication and information technology skills will directly be transferable to the expansion of business opportunities between the U.S. and Ghana, one of our highest priorities.  We agree with the visionaries who founded Blogging Ghana:  In the next five years more and more people are going to find employment utilizing their social media expertise.

4. The glamour of the Social Media awards were also surprising (I should have changed my clothes!) and can be credited to aforementioned diplomat, our own Nana Darkoa of Adventures from winning the Best Blog category and the organizers of the award, Fred and Golda for their attention to detail, for instance to the beautiful physical awards! (bottom left in the collage above)

5. We have already started to plan #BlogCamp14! We started around lunch time on Saturday! It will be better, bigger and more intense. We will also think of a way of making the event more sustainable, likely by roping in some of the attendees as contributing members of our organization. Watch out!

Trust me, I have so much more to say about this day and all the people I met/highfived/laughed with/gave my contacts to/directed to the right session, but talking to so many people, both in mics and face to face is tiring. I still feel exhausted. Thankful. Overwhelmed.

And Inspired.

 

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Photos and Tweets from BloggingGhana’s March Meet-Up

On Sunday we had a three-legged meeting – Writing workshop, discussion on future collaborations and finally, info about our yearly event, BlogCamp, coming up this month on the 23rd!

Some stats:

  • 44 of us met at MEST Ghana
  • 3 types of finger food was provided by Tigo
  • 400 participants have already registered for the BlogCamp13 event
  • 7 hugs I got from BloGh members

 

“@gwumah: #BloGH March 2013 meeting; lots of great discussion: http://pic.twitter.com/dewkaxMkj5” >> Love the panorama pic! @BloggingGhana

@gwumah#BloGH March 2013 meeting; lots of great discussion: pic.twitter.com/dewkaxMkj5/dewkaxMkj5” >> Love the panoBloggingGhanaoggingGhana
“@MutomboDaPoet: RT @silverscholar: @kajsaha speaking @BloggingGhana March Meet Up #BloGH http://pic.twitter.com/albbTfmvi4 *that lady is nice” Thanks!

@MutomboDaPoet: RT @silverscholar@kajsaha speaking @BloggingGhanaMarch Meet Up #BloGH pic.twitter.com/albbTfmvi4/albbTfmvi4 *that lady is nice” Thanks!
More than 400 confirmed participants for #BlogCamp13 on 23rd March, says @ttaaggooee @BloggingGhana.  #Blogh http://pic.twitter.com/boKpQ0TqTy

More than 400 confirmed participants for #BlogCamp13 on 23rd March, says @ttaaggooee @BloggingGhana#Bloghpic.twitter.com/boKpQ0TqTy/boKpQ0TqTy
I see familiar faces. Miss these people! RT @Kwabena: We have a full house at the @BloggingGhana meeting. #BloGh http://pic.twitter.com/32m0s4azzX

I see familiar faces. Miss these people! RT @Kwabena: We have a full house at the @BloggingGhana meeting. #BloGhpic.twitter.com/32m0s4azzX/32m0s4azzX
@dje_djelyn @chrisdof during group discussion time at @BloggingGhana March Meet Up. #BloGH http://pic.twitter.com/55HvKaueZ7

@dje_djelyn @chrisdof during group discussion time at @BloggingGhana March Meet Up. #BloGH pic.twitter.com/55HvKaueZ7/55HvKaueZ7
Should we discuss things that never seem to change? Hot debate on the @LightOffGhana1 issue @BloggingGhana meet-up. http://pic.twitter.com/0tmorDBeub

Should we discuss things that never seem to change? Hot debate on the @LightOffGhana1 issue @BloggingGhana meet-up. pic.twitter.com/0tmorDBeub/0tmorDBeub
Personally, I'm happy we finally have a fashion blogger in our midst! @fashionmaniagh http://pic.twitter.com/Hp7IfqBpn3

Personally, I’m happy we finally have a fashion blogger in our midst! @FashionmaniaGh pic.twitter.com/Hp7IfqBpn3/Hp7IfqBpn3
44 people in the room, not enough chairs! Thanks all for attending this month's @BloggingGhana meet-up! #Blogh http://pic.twitter.com/mHXOgHfKbL

44 people in the room, not enough chairs! Thanks all for attending this month’s @BloggingGhana meet-up! #Bloghpic.twitter.com/mHXOgHfKbL/mHXOgHfKbL
This month's @BloggingGhana Meet-up is over but discussions continue... #Blogh http://pic.twitter.com/4oOUqEwh0z

This month’s @BloggingGhana Meet-up is over but discussions continue… #Blogh pic.twitter.com/4oOUqEwh0z/4oOUqEwh0z
Chris also wrote a blogpost about the event:
Learn more about BlogCamp13 here:
“@gwumah: #BloGH March 2013 meeting; lots of great discussion: pic.twitter.com/dewkaxMkj5” >> Love the panorama pic! @BloggingGhana
I see familiar faces. Miss these people! RT @Kwabena: We have a full house at the @BloggingGhana meeting. #BloGh pic.twitter.com/32m0s4azzX
Should we discuss things that never seem to change? Hot debate on the @LightOffGhana1 issue @BloggingGhana meet-up. pic.twitter.com/0tmorDBeub
Personally, I’m happy we finally have a fashion blogger in our midst! @fashionmaniagh pic.twitter.com/Hp7IfqBpn3
44 people in the room, not enough chairs! Thanks all for attending this month’s @BloggingGhana meet-up! #Blogh pic.twitter.com/mHXOgHfKbL
Chris also wrote a blogpost about the event:
Learn more about BlogCamp13 here:
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My Blogging Year 2012

In September, my blog was hacked into and all my pics disappeared. Still today, all photos before September 8th, 2012 are missing. That is painful! But there were good times as well. Here is my Blogging Year 2012:

January

We had the first meeting of the year with BloggingGhana, I tried to launch the hashtag #GHhousing (and failed terribly) and BBC inaugurated their new debate program in Accra.

February

I found myself in the middle of a breastfeeding debate, and prepared for a presentation of my research so wrote about it and on using Google forms for research.

March

In this month, I went back to work at Ashesi University after my parental leave. Also the GhanaDecides initiative was launched together with our first campaign, iRegistered!

April

I started a series, Blogs I Read. First out was Holli’s new blog. I took my family to the Chale Wote festival organized by the AccraDotAlt crew and reported about our family addition: poultry!

May

In May, BloggingGhana held our first major event: BlogCamp. I wrote about it before it happened, then a report and then a post with pictures. And then I couldn’t help but compare it to a Swedish blog event! I also discussed the galloping inflation Ghana was experiencing.

June

A plane crash in Ghana was reported in social media before in traditional media channels – this was a tipping point for social media in Ghana! I had my first guest post and met with other people who were covering the elections online. Thanks to Google Ghana for hosting us!

July and August

I needed passport photos to travel and then I was off for vacations!

September

I came back from my vacation, revamped my blog, only to see it hacked as discussed above. I also launched a new career as a TV host!

October

With my new career, my blog readership increased big-time from around 50 on a good day to 1500! I was also chosen as the Blogger of the Week (BOW) by BloggingGhana and posted photos from my first TV interviews with Abu Sakara, Papa Kwesi Ndoum and others. This was a splendid month for my career, but luckily I also had time for some family fufu and for Sister Deborah’s hit video “Uncle Obama“.

November

The Melcom Disaster happened, killing 14, again a news that was carried by social media in Ghana. I also went to a social media and a humanist conference, both in Accra. At work, I was interviewing politicans and doing research…or rather watching the Azonto.

December

The last month of the year was dominated by the Ghanaian elections. I am proud to say that both online and on the TV-screen, I had taken part of informing the citizens of Ghana about their choices. Then the results were declared on Facebook (my post on it was read by 3000 in the first 24 hours) and soon after the opposition vowed to challenge them! On Friday, the opposition filed their complaint against the EC and the president-elect.

In conclusion, it has been a very eventful year, both for me personally and for Ghana. Specifically,  I think this is a year where social media in Ghana has really taken off and more and more people turn to the Internet for their news and communication needs. Next year, BloggingGhana will meet on how to sustain the debate we created with GhanaDecides, I will meet with TV3 to see how I can be involved in future political programming. I will of course teach, have some other projects on my mind and hope to collect data for my thesis. Recently, I met someone who presented herself as an “Academic Entrepreneur” and I humbly aspire to be just that in the next year!

Thanks for reading my blog and happy new year!

For more of this, here is My Blogging Year 2011.

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