Ghana Election 2012: A Digital Walk-through

Tomorrow is election day in Ghana, my country. A lot has been going on on the Internet and social media this year with regards to campaigning and civic activism. The main goal is to whip up the enthusiasm of the youth for the elections and in matters of governance. Today's been very quiet, compared to previous days, when we were inundated incessantly with campaign messages. I've been through different towns- Accra, Ho, Keta, Aflao and Tema. Politics is heavy everywhere! A lot has been written about social media's relevance in the elections too.

Issues 

Kwesi Acquah put together the wordle below to capture some of the key things Ghanaians have been discussing leading to the elections:

Ghana Elections 2012 Wordle. Credit: Kwesi Acquah (@kwesiacquah)

I created this other one using content from ghanadecides.com at worditout.com:

Ghana Elections 2012 Wordle created using content from ghanadecides.com

Obviously, personality and party issues are intertwined with the real issues of the people.

Civic Activism

BloggingGhana, through its Ghana Decides project, has been at the helm of using the Internet and social media to engender more discussions and actions around the elections. Aljazeera recently hosted the team on its renowned social media show, Stream. Ghana Decides' latest campaign, Our Vote, Our Voice, seeks to get Ghanains to pledge to vote in December.

African Elections Project has also deployed new media tools to collect citizen reports, via Ushahidi, to ensure that the elections are credible. They're also providing social media training and coverage on election issues.

Google Student Ambassadors also recently run My Voice GH series to express their views on various issues that affect their day-to-day lives.

There are other groups doing some work in their own right.

Software Tools

It is always heartwarming to see the developer community invent tools that address the direct needs of the community. This syncs well with a personal mantra: "we must use the tools we have to solve the problems we face." Here are a few of them.

VoteKast Afrika: Collates results and Displays them in graphical format as they come in.

Ghana Vote Compass: An interesting tool that tries to predict your political leanings based on your inputs. This tool might be handy for those who haven't made up their minds yet.

The 2012 elections in Ghana will be closely fought. It is interesting to see the Internet and social media play a significant role in it for the first time.

Are there any campaigns or apps that you know pertaining to the elections? Please don't hesitate to share!

Ghana, Get Out the Vote! Our Vote is Our Voice in Election 2012

#GhanaDecides, #LetsVote, #OurVoteOurVoice

The 2012 general elections in Ghana is a week away, and the stakes are really high this time around. Candidates are tackling issues and policies in an unprecedented fashion, a sitting president joined the IEA presidential debates for the first time and social media is abuzz with election talk. It seems like the country can't wait for 7th December. Even though all indications point to the continuation of the traditional NDC-NPP duopoly, smaller parties like CPP and the newly-formed PPP are holding their own admirably- perhaps they will see a spike in their fortunes. It seems to many, though, that the PNC is on a downward trajectory.

The elections is not all about political parties and politicians. Ghana Decides, the foremost social media initiative around Elections 2012, recently launched Our Vote Our Voice, a campaign to get all Ghanaians to execute their civic duty in a peaceful manner.

"The purpose of the campaign is to promote communal voting... We believe peer-to-peer influence is still high and people could call up friends to vote or post updates to say #iVoted which may encourage others to vote.”

“Ghanaians must know that they have to vote because it is the in the interest of their children, their sisters and all of us. If you refuse to vote, it is like saying you don’t care about the people you love.”

Our Vote, Our Voice comes after many other  initiatives undertaken by this group of civic activists from BloggingGhana namely iRegistered, social media workshops, community engagements, Ghana Decides Tag, Speak Ghana, online discussions and event coverage.

Read the full press release on ghanadecides.com.

Online and offline forms have been created to to receive pledges from registered voters. Ghana Decides volunteers will follow-up pledges with emails and phone calls to encourage all those who pledged to go out and vote in the election. 

PLEDGE NOW TO VOTE IN THE 2012 ELECTIONS.

Join the conversation by following @ghanadecides on Twitter, liking the Ghana Decides Facebook page and subscribing to the YouTube Channel. #LetsVote!

Social Media Awards for Ghana's Online Community

BloggingGhana is introducing another first into Ghana's online world, the first ever Blog and Social Media Award! The event slated for March 2013 is generating buzz in the local web ecosystem, as this is the first time bloggers, vloggers, tweeps and facebookers will be officially recognised. Find the full press release below.

“BLOG And Social Media Awards 2013!”

Ghana’s 1st Blogging And Social Media Awards Night

We’ve all fantasized about being world-popular writers; had long conversations with ourselves in the shower; wowed the lawyer in us with the sheer wit of our arguments in the isolation of our bedrooms; calmed the storms and tsunamis of the world with Dalai Lama and Paulo Coelho. We’ve even changed policies and agenda with our very own mass followings, photoblogs, and online networks. In reality, this might not be the case, but in the world of the blogger, tweep, facebooker, everything is possible.

It’s a closed world, personal and sometimes defiant, but it has influenced, shaped, and motivated many. And here at BloggingGhana, we firmly believe it’s about time we appreciate, honour, and award some of the personalities behind the blogs, tweets, and pages that have so motivated, informed, and affected many of us.

So join us, in March 2013, to show special honour to our silent, unknown, sometimes faceless cyber and social media motivators. Yes, you, me, and she/him, at the first-ever in Ghana “Blog & Social Media Awards 2013”. If you are a blogger, tweep, facebooker, and you believe you have touched the world – really, it’s okay if you/person are not so up there, you should still make your nomination – locate yourself in the following categories:

• Best Technology Blog
• Best Business & Commerce Blog
• Best Citizen Journalism Blog
• Best Creative, Literary Short Stories, Poetry Blog
• Best Showbiz and Entertainment Blog
• Best Lifestyle Blog
• Best Activist Blog
• Best Photo Blog
• Best Organisational Blog
• Best Blog
  

Other Social Media Categories

• Personality with Best Social Media Presence
• Organisation with Best Social Media Presence
• Best Original Content
  

Nomination Process
BloggingGhana will open up Nominations for the above listed categories in November 2012 after which an Academy and the Public will vote for the best in each category. Voting will close in February 2013 and presentation of awards will be at the BlogCamp Ghana 2013 event scheduled for March 2013.

Visit http://blogcampghana.com/social-media-awards/ then follow @BloggingGhana on Twitter, and stay locked on for updates on “the road to Blog & Social Media Awards! 2013”. There will be daily riddles, blog quotes, personality bloggers of the week, ‘Vim Series’, and other events alongside the nomination period activities. Most importantly, there might be an award here with your name on it!

ABOUT
This event is brought to you by BloGH – BloggingGhana, Ghana’s biggest organization of bloggers and social media enthusiasts. BloggingGhana (BloGh) is a group of bloggers and social media users, writing out of Ghana or the Ghanaian experience. It is also an aggregator website that collects the latest posts and tweets from our members. Since June 2011 we are a registered non-profit organization with a executive council working towards the following objectives:

1. Serving as a forum for bloggers in Ghana to network and exchange ideas
2. Building capacity among bloggers in Ghana
3. Accessing new audiences for our blogs through a mutual website (aggregator) and other activities
4. Promoting citizen journalism in Ghana
5. Educating the general public in Ghana on the opportunities of social media
   

The idea of starting BloGh came out of a meet-up of bloggers on 24 July 2008.  To that first meeting, organized by bloggers Sandra Crabbe and Kajsa Hallberg Adu, eight bloggers were invited. We wrote: “we would like to bring the Ghanaian blog community together in real life! There is so much to say…about our green homeland, if Blogger is better than  WordPress, if labels are useful, how best to boost and count traffic,  what Internet cafés are fast, and of course how blogging changes your life…”

END

Media Contact:
Naa Adaku (Golda) Addo
Blog & Social Media Awards Lead – BloGH
+233(0)244828322
@GHANAmomoni
goldaaddo@gmail.com

BloggingGhana Organises First Ghana BlogCamp

BloggingGhana, Ghana's biggest group of bloggers and social media enthusiasts presents a day of workshops and networking dubbed BlogCamp Ghana 2012. I will encourage everyone who can to attend this event as I can testify to how social media has changed my worldview and improved my life. BlogCamp 2012 indeed gives voice to the new generation!

Exchange of ideas during January 2012 meeting

BlogCamp seeks to educate and inform attendees on the benefits of social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google+ and blogs. Further, BlogCamp 2012 will demonstrate how the youth can leverage the power of social media for positive social change, good governance, accountability, technology, business and education; this will ensure that there is more online content from Africa. BlogCamp 2012 will also be used to launch Ghana’s first Social Media Awards scheme, aimed at rewarding various activists and contributors to the growth of social media in Ghana. Visit the BlogCamp Agenda page for further details.

BlogCamp 2012 has been made possible through the efforts of the BloggingGhana Community and the kind support of our partners: Vodafone, Google, United States Embassy, Nandimobile, Web4Africa, Citi 97.3 Fm, Mawuli Sikanku Photography and REDD Kat Pictures.

Enter your details into the BlogCamp 2012 registration page to be part of this wonderful programme. For more information, visit the BlogCamp Ghana website or connect with BloggingGhana through Twitter, Facebook or Google +. We will be posting with the hash tags #BlogCamp12 and #BloggingGhana. Send your inquiries and we will get back to you immediately. Be part of BlogCamp 2012, Voice of a New Generation!

Biometric Voter Registration in Keta, Ghana: How I Registered

Ghana will be going to the polls this December to elect a new president and members of parliament. As part of preparations for the election the electoral commission (EC) is undertaking a fresh voter registration exercise using biometric technology. The adoption of a Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) system has become crucial in order to minimise electoral fraud, and to ensure that whoever emerges victor is the true choice of the people.

What is biometric registration and how will it be done? I believe the video below explains the process quite well:

I registered on Easter Sunday at the Abidjan station polling station at Tegbi near Keta. Contrary to reports of a tedious registration process, characterised by long queues, from some parts of Ghana, my experience was pretty smooth. In fact, one woman who was almost done with penning down her name was the only other registrant at the centre when I got there. It took no more than ten minutes to get my brand new voters ID card.

Going through the Biometric Voter Registration exercise at Tegbi-Keta in the Volta Region

 The staff of the EC were professional and friendly. They took the trouble to answer all my curious and probing questions. From them, I got to know that I was the thirty-second person to register on that day. They're not facing any major technical glitches. Hopefully, as the Easter festivities have ended, more people would go to register in order to participate in the national elections.

Which card is better? The old one or the new one? #iRegistered

 So, I have my voters ID card, and the power to elect our next leaders, in my hands now. There are many issues to weigh before casting that vote, before determining the direction that Ghana should go in the next four years. The conversations have began. Ghana Decides, a BloggingGhana Election project seeks to promote these important conversations on social media channels. Starting with the iRegistered campaign,  their Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google + and Flickr pages reveal the amazing efforts being made to engage the youth ahead of this year's elections. Hopefully the often ignored voices of youth, women, physically-challenged and other socially-excluded groups will count during the elections through their efforts.  Refreshingly, the likes of Mashable, AJstream, GlobalVoices, Ghana News Agency and the government portal are following keenly what the youth of Ghana are trying to achieve using social media.

For now, I will keep a keen eye on events as they unfold and make my choices based on the real issues, the issues that I and others around me face. Just like every other Ghanaian would do. Go and register if you have not done so yet. Like the cliche goes, "your vote is your power!"

How Many African Women are Online?

African women given the impetus can put technolpgy to good use. Source: ris.lib.unc.edu

I pose this simple question to ICT4D researchers on International Women's Day 2012. My orignal intention for this post was to highlight the limited access that African women, and those in other parts of the developing world, have to the Internet and other vital information sources. But where could I find comprehensive statistics to back my claim?

Tweeting at BarCamp Takoradi, Ghana: Men dominate the show

 Or, perhaps am I just tasking myself to bring a non-issue into the limelight? I don't think so. Cursory observation and scanty data available show just how grave the situation is:

• Women’s participation in Internet usage in Africa ranged from 12% (Senegal) to 38% (Zambia), according to this 2003 study. This is notwithstanding the fact that women constitute the majority in most African countries.
• According to socialbakers.com, far more men than women use the social networking site, Facebook in Ghana.

Male/Female ratio of Ghana's Facebook Users

Studies showthat women naturally tend to use the Internet and mobiles for personal and intimate encounters, like what persists on social networks, more than men. So why the huge disparities?

• In Uganda, women's awareness and usage of ICTs is nearly three times less that that of men (ResearctICTAfrica, 2006). There, women tend to acquire basic ICT skills in order to be able to get employment in gender-stereotyped roles, it was noted.

These sad developments defeat the objectives of women empowerment as captured by the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) in 2003:

We are committed to ensuring that the Information Society enables women’s empowerment and their full participation on the basis of equality in all spheres of society and in all decision-making processes. To this end, we should mainstream a gender equality perspective and use ICTs as a tool to that end.

Team Azma coming out of the Kuyu Project Digital Camp in Kenya show the way forward for African girls and women

Not only that. Granted that ICTs have been identified as development tools and women are at the heart of development in our communities, the situation is worrying. Knowledge is power. The inability of women to drink from the knowledge well of the world-wide web is disempowering; this is the inimical to the advancement of development in Africa and elsewhere. Their lack of avenues to express themselves through the emerging digital frontiers choke their voices in the arena of public discourse. This cannot be!

Firstly, we need to be able to place a figure on the actual number of active female Internet users. Next, we should figure out the factors that inhibit women's use of the web and finally put in measures to reverse this trend. Many women are leading the way when it comes to technology in Africa, but we must support many more to bring change to our communities. Bring the women online!

What if Kwame Nkrumah Used Social Media?

The story of Ghana's first president, Kwame Nkrumah, continues to draw many passions years after his overthrow and death. Ghana is celebrating a holiday in his honour today and members of the Blogging Ghana community, which I belong to, are writing series of posts in his memory. Last two years, my post was on what Nkrumah's vision would have been if he was still alive, today I'm wondering how Kwame Nkrumah would use social media if he had access to these tools in his time.Would he have used these tools at all?

Kwame Nkrumah, a true African visionary, progressive and political organiser, would have easily identified the networking capabilities of social networks and deployed them in his day-to-day communications. In his day Kwame Nkrumah always found time to meditate and write. Perhaps he would have been glad to share his thoughts with the whole world through blogs. In addition, I think the president would have equally be won over by the 140-character awesomeness of Twitter to send short snippets of his everyday life to the whole world. Twitter might therefore be his social media of choice.

His possible handles might be @KwameNkrumah, @Osagyefo @Nkrumah. I can't imagine a geeky Nkrumah, so he'd probably use one of the foregoing.

Some of Nkrumah's coveted quotes likely could have emerged first as tweets, with some carefully selected hashtags in attendance:

The independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of the African continent #Freedom #AfricaMustUnite #Africa

We cannot afford to sit still and be submissive onlookers of technological change #Sci4D #Technology

We face neither east nor west, we face forward #NonAlignment #SelfDeterminism #TotalIndependece

Nkrumah's work was known to have been inspired by the likes of Marcus Garvey, Nnamdi Azikwe, Mahatma Ghandi and W.E.B Du Bois. He'd probably have retweeted them copiously:

RT @Garvey There shall be no solution to this race problem until you, yourselves, strike the blow for liberty.


RT @Zik you talk I listen, you listen I talk>>> Great lesson, sir.  #debate #understanding


RT @Ghandi Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.

RT @WEBDubois: Believe in life! Always human beings will live and progress to greater, broader, and fuller life.

I won't be surprised if he sent out a few thoughts running through his mind, as we often encounter in social media circles. 

On the eve of independence: Feeling a bit nervous. I can't believe what we fought for has been won #GhanaisFree #Indece #6Mar57cc: @Gbedemah @Botsio @Busia


When Akosombo Dam was built: I can't wait to inaugurate this dam. The power generated from this facility will propel our industrialisation and development efforts.


Or when he was overthrown: I can't believe my people have deserted me. Ghana and Africa are in trouble. :(.

And many would have retweeted. Happy holidays!

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.

Increasing Female Participation in Science and Technology in Africa

This post is part of the monthly group blogging series of GhanaBlogging Group for the month of March.

One of the central themes of the month of March every year is the celebration of International Women's Day (IWD). The year 2011 marks the 100th anniversary of this global celebration. In Ghana, an awards ceremony and a mountain-climbing challenge were some of the events held last Tuesday, 8th March, to mark the day. Commentaries and reflections on the positive (prominent leadership roles in politics and business) and negative (gender violence and maternal mortality) situations of our women folk have been pouring in like torrents of rain in a tropical rainforest. In the spirit of the times, this post seeks to propose some solutions to the low female participation in science and technology in Africa.

Identify the cultural barriers and remove them

Traditional African society discourages girls and young women from scientific careers through deliberate and non-deliberate means. Firstly, societal norms encourage young girls to study "reading subjects" to the detriment of "calculation subjects" in high school. Secondly, girls tend to have more domestic responsibilities than boys, and therefore less study time. Thus prevailing culture is a great disincentive to female participation in science and technology. We must consciously remove these barriers in order to see more female participation in the sciences

Identify the psychological barriers and remove them

A number of psychological problems also stand in the girls' way. One of the most notable ones is the morbid fear of mathematics. Now, mathematics is at the root of all sciences, and it is unimaginable to execute any scientific study without control over math. This puts our young girls in a tight corner. Another obvious one is the lack of self-confidence in young girls. Confidence inspires rigorous critical thinking, creativity, experimentation and problem-solving, essential skills required for scientific and technological excellence. Special strategies must be developed to exorcise fear of mathematics and lack of confidence in African girls.

Highlight achievements of successful female scientists

There are many hidden successful African women scientists and technologists who have excelled in their chosen fields. Some of them are:

• Dr Wangari Muta Maatha- Noble laureate and leader of the Green Belt Movement
• Prof Marian Ewurama Addy- Professor of Biochemistry and President of Anglican University of Technology, Ghana
• Prof (Mrs) Afua Hesse-Professor of Paediatric Surgery and President of Medical Women's International Association (MWIA)
• Silvian Wanjiku Gitau-Mobile Health Software Developer and Google Anita Borg Scholarship Winner

The achievements of these trailblazers must be widely publicized so as to empower aspiring female scientists and give them credible examples to look up to. If these African women can make it, the young girl growing up somewhere in Bawku can make it too!

Scrap affirmative action and quota system

I disagree with attempts to "level the playing field" through the practice of admitting females into science and technology programmes, in high schools and universities, at lower grades than males. Quota systems help to increase female numbers in the sciences, only for them to be intimidated by the achievements of their male colleagues. Some of them even drop out such "overwhelming" courses. Girls should be supported to boost their performances first and then recruited into academic programmes solely based on merit. This arrangement will boost their confidence and make them more competitive in male-dominated environments, since they see themselves as equals and capable to excel.

It is crucial for national development to increase female participation in science and technology. In my opinion, removal of psycho-cultural barriers, identification of role models and merit-based admission systems are some of the methods to close the gender gap in the sciences. Do you agree or disagree with these points? What are some of the problems that hinder full participation of women in science and technology in Africa? What solutions do you think will help to take these problems away? Share your thoughts!

BarCamp Ghana 2010

I attended BarCamp Ghana 2010 last Saturday,18th December, hosted by Ashesi University College. In true barcamp fashion, there were event enabled tremendous learning and networking opportunities, while showcasing a special urge by Ghana's youth to "create dreams, work smart and shape the future." This post explores five high points made more evident by the just ended BarCamp.

Focus on breakout sessions
The idea of an exclusive "breakout session barcamp" was experimented, cutting out keynote and panel discussions. Subject matter experts were integrated into the various breakout sessions to enrich discussions in those groups. I attended breakout sessions on citizen journalism, sustainable development and blogging. All of these sessions were intense and engaging, allowing for cross-fertilisation of diverse opinions and ideas. One session I missed was "telling the African story", whose key discussion point was whether there was really something like a positive African story or not. Fellow blogger Nana Fredua Agyeman has written an emotional post on the subject.

Farida Bedwei: succeeding in the face of the most-daunting adversity
When we encounter difficulties and problems, we often lose steam and are thrown off the course of our goals. We succumb to temporary setbacks, while wishing adversity was never part of the equation. The same cannot be said of Farida Bedwei, software engineer and writer. She is joyously making the most of life amidst physical, social and psychological exertions of cerebral palsy, a medical condition that leaves many throwing their hands up in despair. Farida facilitated breakout sessions on women in ICT and neurological disorders at #bcghana; her story challenges all of us to rise above whatever challenges lie in our path and live life to our optimal ability.

Blogging and social media on the rise
The blogging breakout session, coordinated by Oluniyi Ajao of GhanaBlogging, unsurprisingly seemed to be the toast of this year's barcamp as it recorded probably the highest attendance. Blogging success tips from Oluniyi, MacJordan, Nii Ayertey, Ebenezer Gwumah, Nina Chachu and others were shared. Design, consistency, relevance and focus are some of things needed to be successful in blogging. One thing I picked up though was "Yes, you can make money from blogging in Ghana", and that is truly heartwarming. The high turnout shows jut how important individuals in Ghana is attaching to social media. Local companies have no choice but to follow suit shortly. Perhaps an exclusive blogging and social media event/workshop should be put together soon to showcase what social media can do for all aspects of our lives.

Sustainable development is the way to go for Africa
D.K. Osseo-Asare's presentation of the Anam City project, Anambra State, Nigeria, was truly brilliant, and brought to the fore key questions surrounding the notion of a perfect city and how humans and their environment can live side by side. Deploying the Rurban model, which promotes a balance between ecology, technology and sociology in community building, Anam City is set to inspire similar schemes in Africa and the world at large if it works the way D.K. and his colleagues.

Virtual connections extends to real life and real life goes virtual
Repping at BarCamp Ghana were most of the active bloggers and tweeps on the local social scene. The list is exhaustive but linking up with the likes of @ebengwumah, @Delalorm, MissYayraTayDB, @kafuiday, @niyyie, @ttaaggooee, @MacJordan, @nii_ayertey, @donaldiaba, @nanawireko, @jefferyboye, @Abocco, @florencetoffa, @ajoaofoe, @dotkwame, @osarpong, @freduagyeman, @reggesegge, @DaisyAmmaBaffoe, @niiadjeisowah, @D41XY and @iJojoo is definitely worth the time!

The mood whipped up by this year's BarCamp is one of optimism, motivation and action. One can only understand the positive effects of these events through participation. This tweet from @reggesegge sums it all up:

There's somethg abt these #bcGhana events. If u haven't attended any, u'll not understand é +ve 'transformations/resolutions' I'm talkng abtless than a minute ago via HootSuiteTeresa E A Lemaire
reggesegge

Improving Your Website/Blog's Rankings: SEO Views from Ghana

At the last GhanaBlogging group meeting, which was held on Thursday, I was privileged to give a talk on Search Engine Optimization, a way to improve how highly a website or blog ranks during web searches for specific keywords. In this post, I will attempt to break down the complexity surrounding performing SEOs, in my own way, based on information I got from several sources. Your questions and views are very much welcome.

Advantages of Performing SEO

There are quite a number of advantages that one stands to gain from performing search engine optimization, but the one that stands out is that your website becomes more visible during web searches and this increases the amount of quality traffic that comes to your site or blog. Performing SEO helps to reduce your site's bounce rate. So, SEO helps to attract your target users to your site, just as they're looking out for you all over the web. This will culminate in better site performance: higher ad revenues, recognition, higher sign up for social causes, etc.

How to Go about Optimizing your Site

One way is a simple three step process: plan, execute, manage. The third stage is very important because SEO is an ongoing process.

Planning

The planning stage involves studying user behaviour, ie understanding what visitors to your site want or will want. Are they there simply to get information or they're there to purchase a product? This comes in handy when you're formulating keywords. Again, it is very important to research on potential keywords that are related to your site's content at this stage. Tools such as Google search-based keyword tool will help you to zero in on appropriate keywords.

Execution/Implementation

During execution, the first thing to do is to ensure that you determine the keywords that are relevant to each page of your site. A general rule is to to ensure that each page has between 2-3 keywords. The next thing to do is to submit your URL to the various search engines. You can can submit your URL to Google now. Further, you've to generate a Sitemap, that you save in the appropriate directory of your web host and then submit it to your search engine. There are many ways of building Sitemaps but XML-Sitemap generator is one of the most popular ones. Wordpress has in-built tools for handling Sitemaps. There's info at the Google Feedburner Help page about how to generate a Sitemap for a Blogger blog. To submit your Sitemap to Google, you've to be signed up for Google Webmaster Tools. There is documentation to take you through the process of submitting your site/blog and Sitemap to Google.

Management

Managing/measuring your site performance is very easy. Again there are tons of tools for doing this. Fortunately, there are in-built tools in the Google Webmaster Tools environment for doing this. In addition, you can employ Google Analytics and Sitemeter to track the behaviour of your site/blog's visitors. This will give you an indication of what keywords bring visitors to your site and whether your SEO operation has achieved its goals. After performing the necessary evaluation, you can then refine your SEO strategy.

Conclusion

It's important for every webmaster and blogger to ensure that their sites' pages are well optimized. I hope my tips have been helpful to make the subject a bit clearer. Always remember that SEO is an ongoing process and not a one-off event. Therefore we must continue to go throught the steps again and again to achieve meaningful results.

If you're a newbie, I guess you might be inundated with loads of new information. However, this is just a broad overview of the SEO process to get you started. I hope to return pretty soon with more posts on SEO tips, resources, alternative tools to Google's and other ways of making your blog visible. A big shout out to my GhanaBlogging colleagues, especially Kajsa, who steered the meeting so efficiently, and Nana Yaw, for his thoughtful questions. Flood me with your questions in the comments section.