Digital Citizen Indaba 4.0

Today is the start of the fourth Digital Citizen Indaba (DCI) which is part of the Highway Africa Conference. It is hosted at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa. DCI is an annual event that brings together bloggers, online and mobile journalists, citizen reporters, new media practitioners, online industry experts and civil society representatives. This year I will be hosting a workshop titled "Digital Voices to Reconstruct Communities" and a few of the slides can be viewed below:

Digital Voices To Reconstruct Communities

View more presentations from Marlon Parker.

Mobile Youth: Youth Marketing for the Public Sector

This week the Drug Advice Support service to mobilise youth in support of social good was featured on Mobile Youth website and Upstart Radio. An eBook "Youth Marketing for the Public Sector" by Graham Brown explores various ways how brands and public sector organisations have engaged youth in social programs. In our case the key element was identifying the champions amongst the youth as reaching them on a platform that they are comfortable with.



You can read more about engaging with youth for social good programmes in the FREE eBook that can be downloaded here.

Social Media for Civic Leaders and Community Builders

With the increased interest from NGOs and other community based organisations on how they can use social media for reconstructing communities I've found this interesting presentation that will indicate how social media could be used by Community organisations and local Community Leaders. The technology is the medium the conversations and stories are still crucial in the space of Social Media for Community Empowerment.

Social Media for Civic Leaders and Community Builders

View more presentations from Ed Schipul.

Debt Breaker

With the increase of consumers being over indebted and an estimated 60% of approximate 19 million who requires assistance in South Africa a new and innovative means are required to get consumers to the services of a Debt Counselor (DC).

Consumers are universally advised to negotiate reduced repayments with creditors. This generally proves to be very difficult. A debt counselor will be able to assist and be the mediator between you and your creditors. Over-Indebted consumers are often afraid to approach a DC, they don’t have courage to do it or even the fact that they are not aware of the remedies available in terms of our Law.

Debt Breaker is an innovative mobile service where a consumer (over indebted or who just requires advice and support) can add our debt breaker contact to MXit, Google Talk, AIM, Fring, Nimbuzz, Mig33 and many other chat applications. So now you are able to get in contact with someone who can support you with debt related issues remotely using a mobile phone or computer.

With Debt Breaker you will be able to get free advice with regard to debt related issues, over indebtedness will be explained with the remedy available in terms of the National Credit Act. Your conversation is confidential and anonymous allowing you to have the liberty to address the debt issues you, family or friend is experiencing.

An initial assessment will be done free of charge which means if the Debt Breaker subscriber intend to proceed with a debt counselor then the process time will be shortened. Debt Breaker Subscribers will be made aware of documentation that is needed upon first consultation. Debt Breaker would also be able to refer subscribers to registered debt counselors across South Africa.

How to add Debt Breaker to MXit:

Add Contacts
Choose Google Talk
Google ID: debtbreaker
Nickname: Debt Breaker
Accept Contact


On Google Talk and other chat applications just add our debtbreaker@gmail.com to your contacts.

This contact is available Monday and Wednesday between 4 and 7pm.

JJeRR Counseling and Consultants: 021 699 1453 for more info about Debt Counseling

More information about Debt Breaker will be coming soon...

Guidelines to Engaging with your community

Pictured Above: ATHLONE LIVING LAB AREA

Well after many requests of how we've managed to get community involvement in our project I decided to list some guidelines that we followed building a relationship with the Bridgetown Community in the Athlone Living Lab (ALL). These are some of the steps we followed to ensure beneficial community engagement:

IDENTIFICATION PHASE:
- Identify Context and Purpose for engagement
- Identify Community Space for engagement
- Identify strong community stakeholders who are well respected and active in the community
NB: Engagement activities should not be burden to community

PLANNING PHASE:
- Planning with Key Stakeholders
* Plan engagement activities with Community Members you already know
* Plan engagement activities with Community Members you don’t know
- Prioritize engagement activities
- Identify roles of stakeholders in Community Engagement
- Create your engagement Implementation Plan

IMPLEMENTATION PHASE:
- Involve key community stakeholders from the offset
- Build Relationships
* DO NOT make promises
- Establish Community Champions
- Communication mechanisms to enhance engagement
- Align with Community (Stakeholders') Vision and Mission

ENGAGEMENT PHASE:
- Divide engagement activities in subsections
- Engagement with community becomes part of community activities
- Monitor Progress of engagement
- Maintain relationships with community and its members
- Transfer of responsibilities to Community champions

SUSTAINING PHASE:
- Establish Community Co-champions who are identified and mentored by Champions
- Continuous monitoring of progress
- Strengthen relationships with community and its members
- Engagement activities objectives/goals measured and assessed
- Future engagement objectives identified

Using the above steps (iterative steps) proved to be helpful in establishing the community engagement and the Athlone Living Lab (ALL). We trust that this could also be useful to you when establishing relationships in communities in tension for ICT development.

The Tool is in your hand: The Mobile Revolution

Advice Support expansions

This year we are starting with a bang and expanding Advice Support services with the launch of 2 new additions to DAS (Drug Advice Support). PAS (Positive Advice Support), advice and support for people impacted by HIV or AIDS, and CAS (Career Advice Support), offering youth advice on studies,career and general tips, has been launched today and is available to the public.

How to add PAS:
- Add contact
- Select Google Talk
- Google ID: pasdirect , Nickname: PAS
- Accept Contact

How to add CAS:
- Add contact
- Select Google Talk
- Google ID: casdirect , Nickname: CAS
- Accept Contact

These services will be available on Tuesdays and Thursdays 3 - 5pm. With these expansions we hope to reach and start reconstructing as many people using technology.

A Safer MXit: Parental Control of Chatrooms

With the increased concerns from parents around their children using .MXit and going into chatrooms. The initiative by MXit to disable public chat rooms has been welcomed by the public including Child Line. According to Herman Heunis, CEO, of MXit "The merits of this have been under discussion for a very long time and we fee the time is ripe to test the water. More and more young children are being banned from MXit by their parents but unfortunately this doesn't prevent them from signing on to other Internet chat services all over the world, where they may not have the same protection as MXit provides". The parents should still be responsible and making themselves aware of this technology. If banning the technology will solve the problem, I don't know. It will leave a gap for another to take its place that might not have the same controls. We've seen over the past few months how many have been reached through MXit which has become many people's lifeline accross our nation. To date we've reached over 13 000 messages an indication that this technology has its role to play in our digital society. Read the official press release here

Mom 2.0 sending first emails

With the buzz around the Mom 2.0 and the women who are using technology to empower other women and children, today was an exciting time for many of the ladies as they started with the first phase of their cafe sessions. One of the key elements of empowerment using technology is the Communication pillar. The first technology that we introduced to them was email. All of the ladies created a gmail email account and sent each other email by the end of their session.

This great achievement for many of them was being able to overcome their fear of technology and actually typing (even though it was slow) with no pressure at all. Seeing these ladies achieving what they did today really brought me so much joy. Even though some struggle to read and write, but with the help of other women and the reconstructed team they were able to send emails against all odds.

As we continue to expand the different ways in which the women communicate, we are keen to see how they engage with the different technologies and which tools they would prefer.