Google to Host Days for Ghana's Tech Community

Since deciding to set up office in Ghana, Google has been actively supporting tech-related events and groups in Ghana. Mention can be made of BarCamp Ghana and TEDxYouthInspire. Google Ghana also recently teamed up with Citi Fm to organise a conference on Internet bandwidth in Ghana.

Google is announcing its own event, dubbed G-Ghana, to be held at Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT. The Internet giant hopes to engage Ghanaian software developers, marketing professionals and technology entrepreneurs. The G-Ghana site does not mention technology writers and bloggers, but I'm pretty sure Google would love to have us as well. :).

On the G-Ghana website, Google states that the event is consistent with their core mission:

In alignment with our core mission, "to organize all the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful" we would like to provide training on localized and global tools to spur economic development and entrepreneur opportunities for people in Ghana.

The event will held from 3rd June to 4th June 2010. Day 1 is for software developers and computer science students, who must have some technical programming skills while day two is targeted at technology entrepreneurs and marketing professionals.
Google has lined up wonderful agenda for both days. This event is a must-attend for anyone who is part of the technology community in Ghana. Prospective G-Ghana attendees must register their interest in either of the days on the G-Ghana website. I'm expecting a lot of exciting things to happen during G-Ghana.

Is Fufu a Suitable Topic for the Internet?

Imagine you're on a trip to Koforidua, Ghana, and you want to visit the best local fufu bar. How would you find out the best bar without asking someone? How would you get there?

Just as the above scenario is difficult to resolve, so is the business of finding relevant Ghanaian content on the Internet. I've had the experience of sifting through scores and scores of websites on occasion without finding the desired information that I sought. Dorothy Gordon, Director -General of Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT, addressed this issue during the recently held Citi FM-Google Ghana conference on Internet bandwidth.

Dorothy's submission sparked three lingering questions on my mind:

1. What importance do Ghanaians place on playing the lead role in developing, uploading and accurately representing local information online?

2. How can Ghanaian culture and languages be effectively expressed within the context of 21st century web culture?

3. In what ways are Ghanaian businesses exploiting the web as a powerful communication channel to reach their customers?

These questions apply to the rest of Africa as they do to Ghana. If you have some answers or an opinion on any of the issues, please don't hesitate to let us know. Over to you!