Using Social Media in Citizen Engagement in West Africa

It is now common knowledge that ICTs play important roles in the development process. In West Africa, projects such as Esoko, Grameen MoTech and Project ABC are confronting the challenges of development from different angles. Another interesting area with great potential in this sphere is the role of ICTs, social media in particular, in citizen engagement.

Côte dʼIvoire-based Nnenna Nwakanma of Free and Open Source Software Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA) explores the question: "Social media and networks: what potential is there for policy engagement by citizens in West Africa?" Nnenna first gives a vivid account of the cultural diversity of the West African region and then gives key Internet statistics. She then goes on to cite instances of the usage of social media in discussing policy issues in Ghana, Nigeria and Côte dʼIvoire. From Nnenna's study we learn of different instances of social media in policy engagement:

Citizen-to-citizen engagement- During the Ivorian elections, individuals and news outlets used the #Wozonmai and #CIV2010 Twitter hashtags to disseminate information and advance different viewpoints with regards to developments. Another instance is the Enough is Enough (EiE) campaign run by a coalition of youth activists to ensure accountability during the Nigerian elections.

Government-to-citizen engagement- Ghana's Constitution Review Committee put together various channels such as Facebook, Twitter and SMS to collate views from individuals as part of the country's constitutional review process. The Ghana Police Service has equally deployed Twitter and YouTube as digital frontiers for their security and safety activities.

President Goodluck Jonathan says "let my people talk to me"
Perhaps, the leader who has used these tools most extensively is President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria. President Jonathan uses both Facebook and Twitter to engage ordinary Nigerians. The latest update on the president's Facebook page is as follows:

"Last Friday I launched a comprehensive database on all Vehicles in Nigeria designed to link every vehicle to its owner/operator such that vehicles can be traced within seconds. This is part of proactive steps we are taking as part of a review of our national security architecture to lay greater emphasis on intelligence and citizens' participation in security surveillance. Terrorism has no conscience and spares no one. We must stand together against terror in its destructive manifestations."

Based on a survey carried out as part of the research, it was found out, among other things that:

• There is increasing use of Internet and social media among citizens in policy engagement discussions
  
• Authorities are becoming increasingly aware of the use of these tools by citizens. Citizens are also of the know that the authorities are aware of their activities and may be monitoring them
• Access to the Internet and social media is being seen more and more as a human right.

In light of the implication of social media in the recent political events in North Africa and the Middle East, and the London riots, the study provides interesting perspective to the situation on the ground in West Africa and future possibilities. You can freely download this study at diplomacy.edu website. I'd like to hear your thoughts on the role of social media in citizen engagement in the sub-region. What are the positive windfalls that could be gained? What are the pitfalls?

Web@2011: Fuelling the Web Revolution in Ghana

Image taken from www.profy.com

There is no doubt that the Internet is fast becoming a key part of the everyday lives of Ghanaians. Many individuals and businesses are taking advantage of the reach, convenience and speed of the web to engage their friends, clients and business partners. Web 2.0 platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter are recording huge numbers of local users. Ghanaian Facebook users have increased to 970,840 from 277,600 in November, 2009 according to facebookcheck.com. This presents the case for business web users to develop effective skills to ride smoothly and speedily on the wave of the nascent web revolution. Creative Ghanaian social web maven, Maximus Ametorgoh and popOut are out to empower Ghanaian web users with the essential skills through Web@2011.

Web@2011 is a technology event which aims at unveiling all about the World Wide Web as a platform for connecting with the world, sharing information, doing businesses, engaging customers and meeting new people. It will further touch on how to design a website, optimize it for search engine, how to create rich and captivating web content, and ways to drive traffic to a web. The new 'virtual infection' called social media, as a consumer-engagement tool, will also be discussed.

Web @ 2011 Event, AITI-KACE, Accra

The first in a series of workshops was held on 3rd June at Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence. Various stakeholders in the Ghanaian Internet space were taken through interesting and insightful topics such as

• Wealth on the World Wide Web
  
• Web Product Development
  
• Web Content Development
  
• E-mail marketing
  
• Creating a Great User Experience
  
• Online Payment
  
• The Game Business on the Web
  
• Driving Traffic to a Website
  

The speakers were a unique blend of experienced, successful technopreneurs and young, talented, game-changing web professionals/entrepreneurs. The line-up included Herman Chinery-Hesse (SoftTribe), Charles Hansen-Quao (DreamOval), Edward Tagoe (NandiMobile), Maximus Ametorgoh (popOut), Sheila Bartels-Sam (inCharge Global), Eyram Tawia (Leti Games) and Michael Darkwa (NandiMobile). Read more about the Accra event on Edward Tagoe's blog.

Kumasi and Takoradi- Get Ready for the Webvolution!

Thankfully, Web@2011 is not one of those conferences scheduled for Accra only. The web revolution fever is spreading to other parts of Ghana; workshops have been lined up for Kumasi (17th June) and Takoradi (24th June). I hope these regional events will be successful and further motivate the organizers to take the webvolution to the rest of Ghana, and beyond, as I have been advocating.

Businesses and individuals who have a serious intent to use the web as an effective communication tool need to take time to learn the core skills that will help them to be successful in their endeavour. The higher the number of skilled Ghanaian web users, the higher the quality and quantity of local web content (applications, text, images, and videos), the higher the traffic to Ghanaian sites and the higher the revenue generated from the Internet!

African Youth and Internet Governance Issues

Youth and Internet Governance Issues Panel at IGF Ghana. L to R: @kajsaha, @gamelmag, @AmmaBaffoe @gkahuma and @MacJordan.

The first Internet Governance Forum (IGF) held in Ghana took place last Friday, 11th March 2011 at the Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT. IGF Ghana is a multi-stakeholder platform encompassing civil society, business, government, academia and the technical community to discuss issues regarding the governance of the Internet in Ghana. Under the theme "Internet as a catalyst for change: access, development, freedoms and innovation", the forum is a prelude to regional and global IGFs scheduled to take place in Lagos and Nairobi respectively later in the year. I was privileged to be part of deliberations on Youth and Internet Governance Issues together with some GhanaBlogging colleagues
at the forum. This post sums my views on some of the key discussions points.

How do young people view themselves as Internet users?

Young people can play a variety of roles as Internet users: developers, designers, researchers, content builders (bloggers, writers, etc), technical people, policy makers, activists, community coordinators, marketers and end-consumers. Though some of these roles overlap, it is very important for each Internet user to identify the role(s) she wants to play (or can play effectively) for best results. Many young people who're passionate about technology tend to be involved in almost all the outlined activities, thus reducing the impact they could have made in one field or the other.

The youth and social networks

In the advent of social media and web 2.0, social networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and foursquare have become the fulcra around which the internet activities of today's youth revolve. Social networks have become crucial to connect, engage, share, learn, relax, publicise and achieve results. Because of social networks, national boundaries are literally melting down as different cultures fast zoom towards convergence. Therefore the lure of being part of the bigger global picture seems to leave no space for localized or nationalized social networking sites as even Facebook, twitter and co, have opened their platforms to run different kinds of applications that serve local needs. One crucial point of concern is privacy and safety issues. Young Internet users are aware of potential security breaches associated with social media, but often overlook them as they are more focused on the numerous advantages that these platforms have to offer. Security goes side-by-side with connections, so social network users must go about their activities with great circumspection. They should take time to investigate the backgrounds of suspicious characters and promptly change their passwords with the slightest indication of an attack.

What is the role of mobile operators in Internet governance matters?

Mobile operators, as key stakeholders in the Internet sector, must actively collaborate with government, regulatory agencies and consumers to debate and implement policy e.g. SIM registration and number portability. This is very crucial in our part of the world as many Internet users access the web through mobile devices. In addition, telcos must strive to:

• Improve accessibility by making their services available throughout the country and not just in major cities
  
• Improve quality especially speed when it comes to their mobile broadband packages
  
• Improve pricing by reducing both cost of connection and cost of data packages
  
• Develop exciting applications that encourage young people to use the Internet constructively
  
• Open up their platforms for young innovative developers to build apps on top
  

How can youth participation in Internet governance issues be increased?

Firstly, the youth must be educated about Internet governance issues and sensitized on their crucial role in Internet governance. Also, since the youth form the bulk of Internet users, they must be well-represented on all relevant bodies pertaining to the use of Internet in Ghana and Africa. Thirdly, the youth must forge common positions on key Internet governance matters through continuous engagement through identifiable youth groups and within larger groups e.g. Internet Society of Ghana.

Outstanding issues

The discussion left a few questions that are worth contemplating on: Is there life after social networks? Do you have a right to be forgotten? What are government's next steps with regards to engaging the youth in Internet governance?

Overall, the youth panel is a great start to getting young people involved in the internet governance process. It was a wonderful learning opportunity for me. Also, check out Kajsa's report for more info.

There were other sessions/workshops on Internet Governance for Development (IG4D), Critical Internet Resources, emerging Issues, Access and Diversity, Security Openness and Privacy, and Multi-stakeholder approach to Internet Governance. IGF Ghana is collaboration between the West African IGF Consortium, Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT, Internet Society Ghana Chapter, GhNOG, GISPA and GARNET. The event was supported by National Communications Authority (NCA), the Ministry of Communications and hosted by National Information Technology Agency.

Ghana's Facebook Picture

Facebook use has caught on in Ghana over the past two years just as it has caught on in other parts of the world. There are many stories concerning how this social networking utility is used. CNN has this interesting piece about the different types of people you're likely to run in on Facebook. Some Ghanaian bloggers have also taken a shot at the subject but Esi Cleland's hilarious piece on Ghanaian Facebook status updates is one of the best that i've encountered to date.

Startup Africa last April wrote a piece on African Facebook demographics based on data gleaned from Nick Gonzalez's checkfacebook application. From Startup Africa's analysis, Ghana ranks as Africa's 7th Facebook user country with just over 100,900 users. My last check shows this figure has risen to 277,600, i.e. within a space of 7 months, Facebook has grown at a percentage of over 175% in Ghana. Startup Africa also computed Ghana's Facebook penetration, the percentage of the country's online population using the social network, and arrived at 11.47% (my own calculations pegs the figure at 27.84%). This places Ghana third in Africa ahead of the likes of Nigeria, Kenya and Morrocco. The ranking is interesting against the backdrop that the aforementioned countries have higher Internet penetration than Ghana.

The demographic details of Ghana's Facebook population is expected but surprising with regards to the huge gap in Facebook usage between the genders. A whopping 68.7% of Ghana-based facebookers are male. The 18-34 age range dominates the Ghanaian Facebook landscape, commanding 82%. The other significant Facebook usage age groups are 14-17 (7.5%) and 35-44 (6.3%).

A few conclusions could be drawn from the above data. Firstly, Ghana's relatively high Facebook penetration shows how much Ghanaians want to keep up with conversations and information. This is buttressed by the country's mobile penetration of almost 50%. Someone will say we are a country of talkatives and these stats point to that. Secondly, the information also shows the demography that should be targeted by businesses who want to employ the social media as an advertising tool. I will place my bet on males in the 18-34 age range for now.

What do you make of these stats? Do they tell you something? What has been your experience with Facebook usage? Is there a way that we can employ this social networking utility to more effective use? The ball is in your court!

An excited group at last year's Facebook Ghana developer garage

My Ghanaian name is Kwaku, what is yours?

Last Friday, 24th July, guest blogger Edward Amartey-Tagoe made a post on PathGhana's new initiative, PathGhana Friday, which is aimed at promoting tourism in Ghana to higher heights. This development has been further boosted by the release of a facebook application by the PathGhana team. This facebook application, called "My Ghanaian Name", helps users to know their Ghanaian names based on the week day on which they've been born.

The application is the brain child of PathGhana lead developer Christian Kojo Tamakloe. Christian studied facebook's popularity and infered that developing such an application on the facebook platform would attract many users and thus promote Ghanaian tourism.

Ghana's unique naming system is widely used among the country's diverse ethnic groups. This special naming system gives special names to people based on the specific day of the week on which they are born and their gender. For example, I am a Wednesday born so the various variations of my name are Kwaku, Kweku and Korku. These names also have certain specific connotations. According to the application, "Wednesday borns are mischievous, vicarious, vigilant and daring. They are usually fully in control of every situation, do not want to be told what to do (some what know-it-alls), spontaneous, vibrant and cordial. Be sure not to cross their paths though". Visitors to Ghana are usually intrigued by these names and therefore adopt them for themselves. My Ghanablogging colleague, Kajsa has one such name. Foreigners, who do not know their week days would find this application very useful.

So, go ahead click here, give it a try and forward your feedback to the PathGhana team at admin@pathghana.com. Be sure to let all your folks know about this cool new app!

Picture: Yours truly with Christian Tamakloe