50 subscribers

I can't believe that after a few weeks of introducing the MXit counselling for substance abuse we already reached 50 subscribers. It is great to see how people are being reached at a place where they feel comfortable. This for many people using the service will be the first step to reconstruction.

Drug Counselling introduced to class at high school

So after a month of exams and keeping warm during the cold winter in Cape Town 2 of the Impact Team, Brent Williams and Clinton Liederman were trained to do the counselling using MXit. They are very excited about the prospects and even introduced the concept to a class at a local high school. Now to see if any of the scholars would respond or if the service would be used.

To add us on your MXit you can do the following:

1) Go to contacts
2) Add contact
3) Go to Jabber or Google Talk (depending on your version of MXit)
4) Jabber or Google Talk ID: idmtalk@gmail.com
Nickname: Impact
5) Accept contact

This service runs Tuesdays and Thursdays between 3 and 5pm. Join us as we reconstruct our communities.

Research Day Presentation and MXit

Today we had the opportunity to introduce the project and the work we are doing to the rest of the researchers at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. We got a presentation slot and Brent Williams and Bradley Naidoo joined me as guest speakers. The response was overwhelming and so much more we can do. Also got feedback from the conference organisers for the WWW-ZA 2008 conference that 4 of our research papers with 4th year students were accepted for the conference. Now to do the final drafts of our papers.

MXit testing is still continuing and I've managed to get 4 other users on the system to test it. We will be taking it to a school shortly. The idea is to have the MXit drug counselling service introduced to schools throughout the Western Cape.

YouTube

Today we looked at posting videos on YouTube and how this can be used as part of a blog. This was a workshop that we had alot of engagement from the Impact Team. They we able to record video clips with their mobile phones and upload it to YouTube.

Here is one of the stories of the Impact Team:

Testing Testing

This month was quiet with the Impact Team as the University had their Easter break. It also meant that we had less posts on the reconstructed blog due to the team not always having access to the internet. This is a barrier that they managed to overcome during this time using their mobile phones connecting to the web using GPRS technology. They began to blog and access Facebook this month using their mobile phones. This is incredible growth seeing that they were not taught this in any of our workshops.

For me personally was a time of testing the MXit platform with various jabber Instant Messaging (IM) applications. Eventually decided to use Google Talk to connect to MXit. The initial testing went well but all I have thusfar is one mobile to one pc. So have to get someone else to log in order to do some more testing.

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.