By Brenda Zulu

Africa Interactive, the publishers of Africa News www.africanews.com a world wide interactive multimedia platform focused on Africa are piloting a new project called “Voice of Africa” where journalists use mobile phones to send news video clips to report news.

Elles Van Gelder Editor in Chief of Africa News said at the Digital Citizen Indaba (DCI) in Grahamstown , South Africa last week that the project was launched by the Dutch who said Western media does not represent does not represent Africa and set up the project to show more balanced images of Africa.

She explained that sending video clips using the mobile phone was a new way of creating content. She said journalists who are part of the project are trained to become innovative reporters and how to use the cell phones.

Elles explained that they also looked at the technical side of doing the reporting and provided the journalists with small keyboards because the cell phone keys where too small to enable Journalists do their work fast.

She observed that the media focus was on Africa and that this was a revolution as these Journalists will be reporting live in events such as elections in Kenya.

Peter Verweij of the University of Utrecht Netherlands observed that mobile technology brings Journalists back to the streets meaning one does not need to get back to the newsroom to send a news report.With the GPS facility, editors in the newsrooms will also be in a position to supervise their reporters because they will be able to know where the reporters are and what they are doing.

Verweij said mobile phones will enhance journalists to report from anywhere for web pages and blogs. The content can range from text to Video and noted that for the first time anyone could be a reporter.

He also observed the challenges for
Africa as being the level of internet connectivity as the work of Journalists is set to improve dramatically with innovations in mobile GPS technology.

In the same vein, Ndesajo Macha a Sub Saharan Global Voices editor in delivering his key note address at the DCI said the future was mobile. He said text messaging has been delivering news.

He said SMS was also used for social networking as much of the news now is known through SMS before the mainstrem media makes the reports.

The coming of new technologies thus has led to fear of adapting to new ways of doing Journalism.

The future for Africa is Mobile as it has been embraced by more than 200 million people on the continent.Talking on convergence, Arrie Rossouw the editorial Director of Media 24 said there was need for people to stop talking about cries and insecurity and instead strive to move toward integrated newsrooms.

The discussion on convergence noted that in African news rooms remains largely unrecorded. Some newsrooms are marching forward, pod casting news items and music programmes and sending texts to cell phones, others are experimenting with video, sending sports clips and news to wireless services.

Matthew Buckland, the Mail and Guardian Online Manager told delegates attending the Highway Africa Conference 2007 that the Web 2.0 software was an important development for smaller role players.

Buckland noted that Media companies need to develop strategies for using the web 2.0 software for social networking and also to attract advertising.

He pointed out that the web 2.0 has played an important role in the improvement of technology and is also less expansive.

Web 2.0 is a term often applied to perceive ongoing transition of the World Wide Web from a collection of web sites to a full fledged computing platform servicing web application.

By Brenda Zulu
The emergence of digital citizens in Africa is still an elitist activity and was still an urban tool. Global Voices Online, Regional Editor for Sub Saharan Africa ,Macha Ndesajo asked and answered the question by saying that “No ones owns the African blogosphere” in his open address to delegates attending the Digital Citizen Indaba (DCI) in Grahamstown South Africa recently. He said that this was because Africa’s rural still has infrastructure challenges noting that as Africa we are were we started with the mobile phones ten years ago and that in the next ten years we expect the revolution to be blogged. He noted that the other challenge was that of ownership as to who owns the African blogosphere? “No one owns the African blogsphere,” said Ndesajo. He noted that blogs gave power to the community to share what they wanted in whatever form weather text, video, sound and data. He said it was not enough to just be a blog unless one was enhanced by being part of a community because united “we would have more power,” said Ndesajo. He gave an example of Kenya Unlimited, which is a Kenyan blogsphere that has the power of the community. “We were a smart mob and we can build new Africa,” observed Ndesajo. He said that digital natives in Africa could embrace both traditional and new media. He observed that many bloggers in Africa had started to practice Citizen Media and also that there was need to build a community around blogs. He noted that blogs were so powerful as countries such as Ethiopia had started to block blogs. Some bloggers cannot blog within Ethiopia. Macha pointed out that without some Zimbabwean bloggers it would be difficult to know what is happening in Zimbabwe. He observed that Podcasting in Africa was not growing as fast as blogging. He observed that there was an African podcast www.africafiles.org at which people use Audacity a free open source audio program to edit their sound. Ndesajo also observed that there was an African You Tube called Mooziko. Meanwhile a Vlogger Khaya Dianga on You Tube called for more Africans on You Tube so that they can help change the way people see Africa. Dianga said the one thing Politicians fear most was You Tube. Bob Sankofa a Photoblogger said he blogs because he wants to show the other part of the story. He added that the people in the Diaspora read and promotes his blog.

Remmy Nweke a Journalist based in Nigeria said he blogs because he wants to achieve his stories online and that it helps in getting background materials online.