Group Photo

I got to Kenya at 05:35 (+3 GMT) to which we were greeted by the presence of a masaai
group.

we got our pickups and headed to our designated apartments, I went to the Natural Oak apartment
and met a couple of other participants who were also happy to see me.
But I was not lucky because I arrived on the day one of the conference which meant no sleep

we got picked by the bus and got to the event which was filled with especially *coffee* as it turns out
Kenya is really cold it was 18degrees when I touched down at the airport. The event went smoothly
but I dosed quite often since I just came from a close to six hours night flight and had no sleep.

I met guys and listened to guys who dedicated a lot of time and single handedly mapped areas and even deserts
yes deserts and they used various tools and were *not* on google’s payroll, most times most Ghanaians work on
how much do I get so I really appreciated the dedication and passion these guys had to map out
places, some of them used GPS and some walked in town write downs road names and other details,
PoI’s(Points of Interests) and then got home and used the satellite view to map them out. Some of them
didn’t have *enough* tech knowhow to work efficiently with google map maker but they did it any way and
it was great. It got me to think of ways to put their work to good use.

They were also the usual business *people* and their quest to make money out of it. I was profoundly shy
as usual and thus didn’t speak that much but none the less I represented Ghana GTUG to the fullest and they were
really interested and showed praises for Us ^^

As it turned out I was the only Developer there and didn’t have any on the ground mapping experience

Well I see too much text up there so I end by saying, I got introduced to the idea of mapping parties and am planning
on setting one up in the next two or three weeks it will be a week long and they shall be food and drinks but please
don’t just arrive because of *food and drinks* come because you don’t want to see your area not reped on google maps
come because you want Ghana to be fully represented on google maps.

By Archzilon Eshun-Davies

Ladies

This year’s Innovation Week (November 8th -11th 2010) at The Kofi Annan Center for Excellence (KACE) in ICT, got off to a unique start with the first ever Ladies IT Day. This ladies only event was jointly supported by KACE (http://www.aiti-kace.com.gh/) , GhanaGTUGS (Google Technology Users Group- http://ghana.gtugs.org/) and Google Ghana. Approximately 200 women from tertiary institutions in the country came together to discuss business and entrepreneurship, character building and the importance of the internet and IT in today’s businesses. Institutions represented at the event included University of Ghana- Legon School of Business (http://www.ug.edu.gh/), Zenith College (http://www.zenithcollegeghana.org/), Valley View University (http://www.vvu.edu.gh/), African University College of Communications (AUCC- http://www.aucc.edu.gh/index.htm) and Maranatha College (www.muc.edu.gh/).

Innovation Week at KACE was originally established to showcase IT innovations in Ghana and the ECOWAS sub-region. This three year old initiative also serves to underscore the great potential IT presents in contributing meaningfully to economic development in Africa. This year’s theme “Making Money with IT”,  created a special focus on linking young technopreneurs with established professionals and experts in the field and highlighted the business applications of IT.

Sadly, in the past, representation at Innovation Week was largely skewed in favor of men, one of the main reasons being that IT is generally a male dominated field in Ghana. To succeed in today’s modern business climate however, it is essential for individuals to have a firm grasp of IT and internet technologies, hence the need to bridge the gender gap.

The days activities included interactive sessions led by Google and GhanaGTUGS where women had the opportunity to learn more about business and the internet. In addition to this, the participants engaged in team building exercises which challenged them to learn more about one another and venture outside of their comfort zones to expand their personal and professional networks.

The first session:Think Big, Think Beautiful, focused on emphasizing the importance of personal presentation. In this session, led by Estelle Akofio-Sowah, Country Manager of Google Ghana and Dorothy Gordon, Director of KACE, the young women were challenged to view themselves as future leaders. The session highlighted prominent women in Ghanaian business, government, athletics and entertainment to show that being a woman in Ghana is not a handicap to success.

The second session: Think Business, Think Growth, provided the participants with insight into the idea of business and entrepreneurship. Anne Amuzu of Nandimobile (http://nandimobile.com/) and Juliana Taylor of Royal Affair Event Management  (www.makeitroyal.blogspot.com) and The Royal Times Magazine(also a member of the Google Ghana team), shared their own personal experiences in founding their own businesses. Their presentations, underscored the fact that with ideas and passion owning your own business is a reality- an idea that seems unattainable to many young women. In selecting young entrepreneurs to speak with the women, GhanaGTUGS and Google Ghana succeeded in prompting the participants to critically begin to think about deconstructing the traditional age and gender barriers which exist in the Ghanaian business climate.

The third and final session: Think Global, focused on the power and dangers of Social Networks as a tool in promoting individuals and business. Often, women are unaware of the potential of social networks. One of participants, an employee of AUCC, provided a personal example of the value of social networks as a career building tool. She currently works as a Co-ordinator of Programs at AUCC and was recruited through her Facebook page. The participants were guided through a number of useful tools including blogging, website and online presence and social media such as Twitter.

In rounding up the event Estelle’s closing remarks reiterated the goal of the day, “to fill the auditorium with ladies and have them leave with a better online presence than when they arrived”. By this measure, the event was an overwhelming success. The women left confident and full of ideas, initiatives, perspective and broader personal and professional networks. They left empowered and ready to tackle a new set of challenges and obstacles to join the next generation of successful Ghanaian women.

By: Juliana A. Taylor

Snapshot of Khan Academy

The five ideas that received the most votes were considered as the winners of Project 10^100. After the past 12 months, they’ve reviewed proposals to tackle these ideas, and today they gave a total of $10 million to five inspiring organizations working on solutions to each of these global challenges. For the next few weeks I will give you insights to these organizations.

Today, I’m going to discuss “Khan Academy”. The Khan Academy is a non-profit educational organization that provides high-quality, free education to anyone, anywhere via an online library of more than 1,600 teaching videos. Google is providing Khan Academy $2 million to support the creation of more courses and to enable them to translate their core library into the world’s most widely spoken languages. I really think it is a wonderful idea. The idea is very simple, making educational content available online for free.

The mission of the Khan Academy is to provide a world-class education, for free, to anyone in the world. It consists of 1400+ (and growing) videos on YouTube covering everything from basic arithmetic to advanced calculus, chemistry and biology. They are also building a series of web applications (some integrated with the videos) that allow students to practice and assess their knowledge at their own pace and even generate content.

The Academy has released their Alpha Khan Academy Exercise Application and you can also Log in to the Khan Academy web application for user-paced practice and instruction. You ability to browse 1800+ videos by topic and they continue to add videos each time.

Both sessions will cover the whole day from 9am to 5pm. The Ga
workshop will happen on Saturday, from 9am to 5pm. The Ewe workshop is
on Sunday, from 9am to 5pm. There will be enough food and Google swag
to go around. And you will also be awarded a certificate of
participation.

Check out the poster for any details I may have missed – http://bit.ly/b51kRY

Use the following form to sign up – http://bit.ly/9muB0A

Social Convention states that “Christmas is the season for holiday parties and gift exchanges for friends, family,co-workers and lover ones”. The real question is this ! what if your economic situation is not very good, no worries.

I suggest you give this free pack as your Christmas present to your friends, family, co-workers and love ones. The Google Pack.

Google Pack is a collection of free Google and third-party software that’s ready to use in just a few clicks. From anti-virus software to keep a computer more secure and voice applications like Skype, to Google applications like Google Earth (where you can track Santa over Christmas), Google Pack’s applications help your friends, family, co-workers, and love ones get the most out of their computing Experience.

The pack includes the following :

• Google Chrome Web Browser
• Google Apps
• Spyware Doctor with Anti-Virus
• Picasa
• Mozilla Firefox with Google Toolbar
• Skype
• Google Earth
• Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer
• Google Desktop
• Adobe Reader
• Google Talk
• RealPlayer

If you can’t get them to smile, at least let their computers smile for them.

I am having a chat with Google UK Rep

The theme of this year’s Barcamp was “Leadership for our times – cultivating change makers”. I had other appointments earlier in the day and for that reason I was not able to attend the panel discussions which I was told included personalities like Patrick Awuah founder of Ashesi University, Dr Sodzi Tetteh and many more.

Google Ghana Country Manager and Me

Because of other commitments last year I was not able to be part of the breakout sessions, but made up for it this time attending three breakout sessions mainly Google Apps Sessions, Ghanablogging Sessions and Google Adsense Sessions.

Participants

In my naive view I think last years Barcamp was more well organized even though it started very late. I also believe the choice of venue played a major role, for example. Last year’s panel discussions were held indoors which added some class to the whole show. Contrast to this years panel discussions which was held outside the MEST building.

In all I think the organizers did a very good job, well done to the Team. Visit barcamp 2009 official website for more.. http://www.barcampghana.org/

And for Cyber Monday, you can take advantage of special limited-time offers available at Toysrus.com, Babiesrus.com and Buy.com. Visit our new Checkout deals page for more details and to browse participating stores. Finally, if you’re looking for gift ideas, check out the Product Search team’s list of popular products. May your “shopping season” be easier than ever!

Mobile advertising is a rapidly growing and competitive space, and Google and AdMob are currently specializing in different areas. Though Google offers many forms of mobile advertising, its focus to date has been on mobile search ads, while AdMob’s focus has been mobile display ads and in-application ads.

Message From The Founder - Omar

Source – Google

CRS is for small to mid-sized publishers looking for insider tips on how to maximize AdSense revenue, increase revenue opportunities via contextual optimization technologies, advertising network exchanges and the latest affiliate/lead generation alternatives.

CRS is for advertisers wanting to learn how to buy advertising across Google’s content network and new advertising exchanges which are rapidly forming. And, for all advertisers looking to maximize targeting of clicks on Google’s Content network and emerging blog, video and social media networks.

speakers include : Jonathan Bellack Group Product Manager for Publisher Ad Platforms, Google, Dave Jacobs SVP, AOL, Will Martin-Gill
Director, eBay, Richard Prenderville Head of Global Brand Marketing, Reebok International Limited and many more.