Wikis

Today we had another special guest, Dr. Gary Wills, joining us from the University of Southampton, UK. He spoke to us about wikis and shared his knowledge on how it is being used and where it fits in Web 2.0 technologies. The example of wikipedia was interesting for the Impact Team as now they've found a place where they could retrieve information.

Thank you Nils and Micke

Nils is really a pioneer in his field and we learnt so much through his 2 day workshop. We also had the opportunity to take our Swedish friends on a journey through the Cape Flats.

Nils did the basics of journalism and the importance of telling your story. For the guys on the program this was an eye opened because they realised that they have stories that needs to be told. Through this 2 day journalism workshop the Impact Team acquired boldness in writing and sharing their stories. Each one of the team wrote their story and many of them can be seen on the reconstructed blog (www.thereconstructed.blogspot.com).

Digital Journalism

As a treat we have guests from Sweden Nils and Micke visiting the Impact Centre to teach the Impact Team more about journalism. This is fascinating because some of the guys are not to keen about reading and writing. Looking forward to see how this will develop.

Tweet Tweet? Twitter

This morning an ex-student of mine came to do a talk about Web 2.0 technologies and to give more insight with regard to twitter. For the first time having a special guest speaker was great for the guys as many of them enjoyed what they were hearing. I each time had to remind myself that this is only our 3rd time coming together and that we still have much ground to cover.

Rafiq also illustrated the power of the mobile phone by doing his talk and updating it on twitter for others to comment on. He also took a picture and through his mobile phone posted it to Flickr and to his blog www.webaddicts.co.za. For the Impact Team seeing the possibilities igited something within them making them realise the potential technology could have in their communities.

MXit for drug counselling?

Today was one of those days where I realised that a technology (MXit) that are being used in our communities are not utilised to empower these communities. Other than Dr. Math and iDrive no other social services are being offered using this Mobile Instant Messaging platform. The thought crossed my mind of using MXit as a tool for drug counselling. Will this ever really work? Definitely something that needs more attention. Will keep you updated on the progress of this project.

Bloggers are here...

Today we played around with weblogs and how it could be used by the Impact Team (ex-drug addicts and ex-gang members). The blogging took longer to get use to than Facebook eventhough posting to each other's wall was common. We created a blog titled www.thereconstructed.blogspot.com where the team will be posting their stories.

Interesting as for many of them it will be the first time typing their story. Please visit their blog to find out more about where the guys come from. We will only meet the end of the month again but the guys have the rest of this month to keep blogging and using facebook.

To Facebook or NOT to Facebook

This morning the Impact Team were introduced to a social networking tool Facebook. Due to most of the team not having any computer or web literacy skills this day started off as a challenge to see how they will manage this technology.

Interestingly enough everyone were able to register on Facebook and by the time we completed our 3 hour workshop at Cape Peninsula University of Technology the Impact Team were comfortable with the environment. This was after only 3 hours of "Facebooking"!!! Over the next few weeks they will be encouraged to continue with this technology and also find our more about other Web 2.0 technologies.