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Sierra Leone poised for success with transparency portal, ACE fibre cable, 3G

Sierra Leone has carried the momentum from the October 2011 landing of the ACE fibre cable in Freetown and is off to a progressive start to 2012.

We must all be ready now to embrace change, change in our attitude towards one another, change in our attitude to our work and responsibilities. All of those changes should translate positively into progress and development for our country.” – President Ernest Bai Koroma, 2008.

What’s happened in the mobile and Internet industry this year? Thanks to great reporting by Sierra Express Media, we have quite a few stories to be excited about as Sierra Leone positions itself as a regional ICT leader:

  • The government (including President Koroma) launched Transparency Sierra Leone, an online portal to increase its level of openness. (More on this below)
  • GoSL announced plans to revise the existing Telecommunications Act to reverse the monopoly of Sierratel over the GoSL international internet gateway before the ACE cable is operational later this year. (A study by the GSM Association in February 2007, citing Kenya, Nigeria and Egypt as case studies, showed that competition in the international gateways market can reduce call prices by up to 90 percent and double call volumes.)
  • Airtel launched 3G service on February 3rd (Africell began offering 3G access in 2011).
  • The Government of Sierra Leone (GoSL) launched an online system to manage system contains mineral rights, export licenses, and related payments.

The transparency portal encourages interaction and collaboration between citizens and the government. Citizens may ask questions and read about government projects. In return, the government can be expected to implement suggestions and remain honest about how the nations’ resources (ie. people’s taxes) are spent. In fact, Dr. Kelfala Marrah, Chief of Staff in the President’s Office, made some excellent points at the launch event:

  • people will pay taxes without hassle when they see how their money is spent
  • the village square is now the internet
  • impose attacks and you will be rewarded for imposing attacks

The site has a very clean layout with large text. Homepage slides are uncluttered. Registries allow for quick filtering based on region. The color scheme (green, white, and blue) even matches the flag!

Transparency Sierra LeoneClick to enlarge. {Transparency Sierra Leone}

Also positive:

  • a focus on national issues and not political debate
  • collaboration between regulator, finance ministry, infrastructure authorities, broadcasters, and journalists
  • the idea centre allows for user submissions (only one has been added as of writing)
  • a blog is frequently updated with news of projects
  • social share buttons in the footer
  • FAQs explain how to participate and even how to comment on posts
  • the president has created a YouTube video (viewed 200 times since January 20th)
  • ‘Agenda for Change’ is prominently displayed as a PDF link, as are links to government websites

The nation is now busy preparing for the operation of the ACE cable later this year. After all, capacity is useless if there is no demand or if the cost structure doesn’t make sense for consumers. Profits from the ACE gateway are expected to contribute to Sierra Leone’s economic progress. The government is clearly not taking any chances is missing this tremendous opportunity.

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Ruling on Tunisian internet censorship delayed

The Higher Tunisian Court trial about blocking certain websites has been postponed until 22 February.

Overhead veiw of boulevard in Tunis

Tunisian internet censorship issues remains undecided. (image: file)

The issue arose late last year after Tunisian lawyers filed lawsuits. They felt national policy was lax around access to adult websites. They proposed these be blocked, calling into question internet freedom.

The ATI (Tunisian Internet Agency) appealed the lawsuit, noting the financial and technical difficulties of censorship.

Throughout ousted President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali’s term internet filtering was implemented.

Tunisia’s has four million internet users. The government considers ICT central to helping the country’s growing economy.

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Digital mapping and governance: the stories behind the maps

This is a guest post from Jamie Lundine, who has been collaborating with Plan Kenya to support digital mapping and governance programming in Kwale and Mathare.

Throughout October and November 2011, Plan Kwale worked through Map Kibera Trust with Jamie Lundine and Primoz Kovacic, and 4 young people from Kibera and Mathare, to conduct digital mapping exercises to support ongoing youth-led development processes in Kwale county. One of the important lessons learned through the Trust’s work in Kibera and Mathare is that the stories behind the mapping work are important for understanding the processes that contribute to a situation as represented on a map. To tell these stories and to complement the data collection and mapping work done by the youth in Kwale, the Map Kibera Trust team worked with the Kwale youth to set up platforms to share this information nationally and internationally. Sharing the important work being done in Kwale will hopefully bring greater visibility to the issues which may in the longer term lead to greater impact.

Sharing stories of local governance

To support their work on social accountability, the Kwale Youth and Governance Consortium (KYGC) mapped over 100 publicly and privately funded community-based projects. The projects were supported by the Constituency Development Fund (CDF), Local Area Development Fund (LATF), NGOs and private donors. As one channel of sharing this information, the Consortium set up a blog called Nuru ya Kwale (Light of Kwale). According to KYGC the blog “features and addresses issues concerning promotion of demystified participatory community involvement in the governance processes towards sustainable development. We therefore expect interactivity on issues accruing around social accountability.” This involves sharing evidence about various projects and stories from the community.

One example is the documentation of the Jorori Water project in Kwale; through the mapping work, the Governance team collected details of the constituency development fund (CDF) project. The funding allocated to upgrade the water supply for the community was 6,182,960 ksh (approximately 73,000.00 USD). From their research the KYGC identified that the Kenya Open Data site reported that the full funding amount has been spent.

A field visit to the site however revealed that project was incomplete and the community is still without a stable water supply, despite the fact that the funding has been “spent.”

Jorori Water Project KwaleJorori Water Project, built using approximately 6.2 million shillings (73, 000.00 USD)

Read more about the questions the team raised in terms of the governance of CDF projects, including the detailed the project implementation process and some reflections on why the project stalled. This is information on community experiences (tacit information) that is well-known in a localized context but has not been documented and shared widely. New media tools, a blog in this case, provide free (if you have access to a computer and the internet) platforms for sharing this information with national and international audiences.

Addressing violence against children and child protection

Another blog was set up by the Kwale Young Journalists. The Young Journalists, registered in 2009, have been working with Plan Kwale on various projects, including Violence against Children campaigns. The group has been working to set up a community radio station in Kwale to report on children’s issues. Thus far, their application for a community radio frequency has encountered several challenges. New media provides an interim solution and will allow the team to share their stories and network with partners on a national and internal stage.

The Kwale Young Journalists worked with Jeff Mohammed, a young award-winning filmmaker from Mathare Valley. The YETAM project not only equips young people with skills, but through peer-learning establishes connections between young people working on community issues throughout Kenya. The programme also provides young people with life skills through experiential learning – Jeff reflects on his experience in Kwale and says:

KYJ filming the enemy withinJeff and the Kwale Young Journalists shooting a scene from “The Enemy Within”

“My knowledge didn’t come from books and lecturers it came from interest, determination and persistence to know about filmmaking and this is what I was seeing in these Kwale youths. They numbered 12 and they were me. They are all in their twenties and all looking very energetic, they had the same spirit as mine and it was like looking at a mirror. I had to do the best I could to make sure that they grasp whatever I taught.”

Jeff worked with the Young Journalists on a short film called “the Enemy Within.” The film, shot with flip-cameras, tells the story of 12-year-old girl who is sold into indentured labour by her parents to earn money for her family. During the time she spends working, the young girl “falls prey of her employer (Mr.Mtie) who impregnates her when she is only 12 years old.” Jeff reflects that “early pregnancies are a norm in the rural Kwale area and what the young filmmakers wanted to do is to raise awareness to the people that its morally unacceptable to impregnate a very young girl, in Enemy Within the case didn’t go as far because the village chairman was bribed into silence and didn’t report the matter to higher authorities.” This is a common scenario in Kwale, and the young journalists plan to use the film in public screenings and debates as part of their advocacy work in the coming months.

Jeff and the Kwale Young Journalists shot the film in four days – they travelled to Penzamwenye, Kikoneni and also to Shimba Hills national park to shoot 7 scenes for the movie. Read more about Jeff’s reflections on working with the Kwale Young Journalists on his blog.

Sharing ecotourism resources

The Dzilaz ecotourism team – a group that encourages eco-cultural tourism in Samburu region of Kwale county — also integrated social media into their work. During the last week (November 8th-12th) the group set up a blog to market the community resources, services and products. They also plan to document eco-culture sites and the impact that eco-tourism can have on the community. As of November 10th, 2011 the Dzilaz team had already directed potential clients to their website and thus secured a booking through the information they had posted.

The importance of telling the stories behind the maps

One important component to mapping work is to tell the stories behind the map. The three groups in Kwale are working to build platforms to amplify their grassroots level work in order to share stories and lessons learned. The information documented on the various platforms will develop over time and contribute to a greater understanding of the processes at a local level where youth as young leaders can intervene to begin to change the dynamics of community development.

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Twitter to block tweets

Micro blogging service and social media website Twitter revealed yesterday that they now have the ability to block certain Tweets from other users across the world. While certain Tweets may be perfectly legal in some countries, Twitter will begin to restrict Tweets in specific countries where content may be contentious.

Twitter now has the ability to block certain Tweets from other users (image: Bartelme Designs)

“Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country while keeping it available in the rest of the world. Some differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there. As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression,” Twitter wrote on their blog.

As an example, the company said that Tweets with “pro-Nazi content” will not be visible in France and Germany, where it is banned – but will be visible to the rest of the world.

The announcement comes in stark contrast to a blog post last year during the Arab uprisings, when Twitter said it won’t censor Tweets.

“We do not remove Tweets on the basis of their content. Our position on freedom of expression carries with it a mandate to protect our users’ right to speak freely and preserve their ability to contest having their private information revealed.”

Charlie Fripp – Acting online editor

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Activists concerned as ITU conference adjourns

Media rights group Reporters Without Borders has issued a statement urging member states of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) agency of the United Nations to protect freedom of information as they begin a plenipotentiary conference in Geneva yesterday.

Cell towerReporters Without Borders has called upon the agency to sanction any countries that use censorship (image: stock.xchng)

Reporters Without Borders has called upon the agency to sanction any countries that use censorship or violate the freedom of information.

Observers expect ITU member states to adopt a series of important decisions about the agency’s future and the protection of freedom of information globally.

Meanwhile, Iranian media personnel and activists have organized a demonstration outside of the ITS Geneva headquarters to call upon the agency to hold the Iranian government accountable.

The Iranian government has announced plans to establish a system whereby telecommunications in the entire country would be entirely filtered and cut off from international networks.

According to Reporters Without Borders, instances of Internet censorship took place in a total of 68 countries in 2011, including China, Cuba and Libya, who all stand as ITU member states.

“We call on the ITU, during this decisive conference, to firmly condemn countries that do not respect the fundamental principles of the free flow of information,” Reporters Without Borders said.

“We also call on the ITU, as part of its work, to set up a commission to monitor freedom of information violations by member states. The development of ICTs throughout the world should be vehicle of democracy. The ITU must not be the accomplice of regimes that obstruct the flow of news and information on their telecommunications networks,” they continued in a press release published Tuesday.

Freedom of information has been a point of global debate in recent weeks as United States legislators debated two bills that would have severely limited Internet freedoms. After an international campaign was launched against the bills, they were side-lined by legislators.

Sarah Sheffer

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Uganda urging citizens to register SIM cards

The Ugandan government has urged its citizens to ensure that their SIM cards are registered ahead of an upcoming deadline, in order for services to be uninterrupted.

Closeup of an MTN SIM card

The Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) made the appeal on Monday as they attempt to have all mobile phone cards registered with the government in an effort to crackdown on piracy and enable new technologies to be rolled out.

“The only person who should be afraid of SIM registration, naturally, is the criminally-minded, who knows that their days are numbered after all existing SIM Cards are registered,” said the commission head of communication, Fred Otunnu.

The UCC added in a statement that “as technology becomes a necessity in daily transactions like mobile money, banking and utility bills payment as well as communication, the exposure to ICT based crimes is on the rise.”

They believe that many crimes in the country are a result of a lack of oversight of mobile phones and its technology and the UCC says that the registration process will enable the government and service providers the ability to better track criminal activity in the country.

“SIM card registration ensures that all subscribers’ data is captured to curb crime. Given the fact that Uganda still lacks an effective Identity Management System, or a national identity database of its citizens,” according to Otunnu, adding that “the exercise is necessary to prevent the harassment people go through as regards other people using mobile phones to perpetrate crime.”

Otunnu added, in a statement to Bikyamasr.com, that the anonymous nature of the unregistered SIM cards “that kidnappers exploit.

“It is how extortionists are able to get away with their deed. Text scams flourish in such an environment. Terrorists, insurgents and enemies of the state and society hide behind untraceable numbers. Rumour mongers use it to sow confusion, spread malicious information or start hoaxes,” he explained.

He argued that SIM card registration promotes user accountability, since telecom companies keep details of all users.

“It also promotes national security and social order, in addition to making it easier to enforce existing legislation.

“When you receive a threatening call from an unknown source, the first step is to report to the Police. A case file is opened after taking your statement as a complainant.  An investigation with the objective of identifying the caller gets underway.

“Usually the basic procedure is for the investigating officer to apply for a court order, which is presented to the respective telecom company for a printout of the phone call logs (list of all incoming and outgoing calls) on your mobile number,” he added.

Andrew Matapare

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Access to ICTs & Human Rights: The Case of Namibian Farmers!

Photo Credit: TheJoyOfTech

Report coming from Namibia indicates that some farmers in the South of the country, especially those farming in the Kalahari, have been cut-off from the rest of the world after Telecom Namibia disconnected their phone lines.

According to the farmers, they have not been able to use their phones since the end of October 2011 as a result of a switch from the old manual system to the WiMaX network which provides voice services, broadband data and high-speed internet access, said the Namibian.

This comes at the time when Vinton G. Cerf, one of the fathers of the Internet widely known for creating the TCP/IP protocol, stirred-up the global information policy environment with his Op-ED piece in the NYT, “Internet access is not a human right.” Vint Cerf argues that technology is an enabler of rights, not a right itself. No doubt, the response to Vint Cerf’s piece has been overwhelming (see The Internet IS a (Human) Right… and Why Did Vint Cerf Say That?).

His statement comes in barely six months after the release of the La Rue’s report of the United Nations which acknowledges that Internet access is a human right. The La Rue report recognized that the Internet has become an indispensable tool for realizing a range of human rights, and ensuring universal access to the Internet should be a priority for all states.

Digital Divide and Human Right

Another piece that came out this week in response to Vint Cerf’s piece is Tales of the Chinese Railway: The Digital 1%, Vint Cerf’s Internet as a Human Right (Not), the Digital Divide and Effective Use that brought in the issue of Digital Divide. While the Chinese government had good intentions to use the Internet – an online ticketing system, to curb long lines at stations and prevent scalpers from selling tickets in the black market, it is rather resulting in access gap.

These two examples from Namibia and China clearly demonstrate the challenge with the issue of “Access to the Internet” and “Human Rights.” What will be the value of connecting rural communities with ICT infrastructure if the people can’t access it? Can the tool (Internet) enable or empower the people if they can’t use it? Nations or States can ensure that the tools are available – 3G, 4G and LTE technologies in remote communities such as these Namibian communities, but without the financial capability of the people to use the services and applications that go with the infrastructure, the tools may be useless.

The dimensions of the digital divide (inequalities between groups) include social, economic, and democratic accessibility or access to, use of, and knowledge of ICTs. As claimed by the farmers, affordability is the main barrier, preventing them to connect to the new Telecom broadband service. The farmers claim Telecom Namibia compelled them to subscribe to its new WiMAX phone packages or to be left without a phone service.

Photo Credit: Flickr

Responding to the farmers’ complaints, Telecom Namibia’s Head of Public Relations, Oiva Angula, said the company had to upgrade its network because the old system had become obsolete and was not financially viable. “We calculate our cost to the customers based on what we pay to provide services,” Angula reacted to the farmers’ affordability claims and said Telecom had reviewed the rental fees following complaints about affordability.

While the old system cost farmers N$91 a month, Telecom had initially offered a three-year contract at a monthly basic rental of N$1 755. Angula stated that customers can now subscribe to a special WiMax package offering voice services and Internet access for a monthly rental of N$199, and the faster WiMaX broadband for a monthly fee of N$349.

The Head of Public Relations said about 44 farmers were affected by the network switch but he could not say how many farmers have been connected to the WiMaX network. “Only a few are resisting, customers must understand the situation that the telecom industry is moving fast, and we must keep pace,” he remarked.

So the question remains, whether access to the Internet and its associated services is a human right or not, even in the remotest communities of Namibia. I believe that ensuring universal access to the Internet for all individuals worldwide needs to be well-understood in its totality. It goes beyond the provision of the infrastructure to promoting or facilitating the right to available, accessible and affordable content to all. In this case, while the upgrade for new services (voice services, broadband data and high-speed internet access) for the Telecom Namibia customers is necessary,  care must be taken so that it is not at the expense of other basic services (telephone) for people at the bottom of the pyramid. And when it comes to human right issues, it does not matter how many people are involved – whether is an individual farmer or 44 farmers.

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Social media fans the Nigerian fuel subsidy debate

As the protests and demonstrations rage on in Nigeria surrounding the government’s decision to cut subsidies on petrol, many citizen have taken to social media sites to voice their opinions. Fuel subsidies provided citizens with discounted petrol at the pumps, but with the government’s retraction of the subsidy, the price of petrol has literally doubled over night.

Protesters gather during a rally against fuel subsidy removal on Ikorodu road in Lagos.

Users of social media site Twitter relay messages of protest action and subsidy news under the hashtags #Occupy Nigeria and #fuelsubsidy. “In Nigeria, the protest will continue tomorrow, and I will be there to occupy,” writes user toyinoddy.

“It is occupy time in Nigeria, let all of us occupy our resources,” tweets another user.

Mr.Perkinson added his displeasure by posting “I don’t believe in #fuelsubsidy removal and corruption and I’ll back it up till the end. Win or lose.”

Facebook, the world’s biggest social media website, has also been a source of information, but more importantly a place where Nigerians share their feelings and thoughts on the matter.

With rising prices and the high cost of transportation and communication, the internet is still one of the best ways to keep abreast of the happenings surrounding strike action and related violence.

“The Internet gives us very effective uninterrupted flow. We may not have access to newspapers, radios and televisions. We may not even have the money to make all the necessary calls. The Internet is a cheap medium for mobilisation. With the Internet, you don’t even have to go to the street and risk being shot by the police who would accuse you of shooting them first even if you have not handled a gun all your life,” Lagos-based lawyer Imam Okochua told Punch Nigeria.

He also voiced his opinion on the Occupy Nigeria movement, which – according to their Facebook page – aims to end political corruption, poverty, police intimidation, and wealth inequality. “Occupy Nigeria is the dream we have cherished for a long time – a peaceful pressure on the government to come out clean.”

But not everyone is pleased with the efforts made by the Occupy Nigeria movement, and took to social media sites to voice their concerns. “Nigerians too like to copy but like a bad photocopier the result is always very poor. What is Occupy Nigeria? A very, very poor copy of the Occupy Wall street protest,” writes Bodise Wilson, who lives in Yenagoa, Nigeria.

“You want to Occupy Nigeria? Nigerians want to occupy Nigeria, who lives here aliens? Fools! And what about the Oil marketers?” he added on Occupy Nigeria’s Facebook page.

Another helpful tool in getting messages across is the use of BlackBerry’s free messaging system, which allows users to send messages and photos to other users of the service. Soon after the strike commenced, there were unconfirmed reports that the Nigerian government was planning to shut the service down. Thankfully it was proven to be false, as Director of Public Affairs at the NCC (Nigerian Communication Commission), Tony Ojobo, issued a statement contradicting the rumours.

“The attention of NCC has been drawn to the information making the rounds that it had at a meeting agreed with CEOs of telecommunications networks to shutdown BlackBerry services in order to deny Nigerians the use of that very important social network. The management hereby states categorically that there was never such a meeting, nor was there ever a resolution to shut down BlackBerry services. The public is please advised to disregard such information.”

In today’s inter-connected world, social media has proven to be a valuable tool for spreading information at a rapid pace – and it’s only growing. The use of sites like Twitter, Facebook and BlackBerry’s BBM service as a source of news and helpful hints highlights the importance of being connected – and how powerful a combined force of internet-savvy citizens can be.

Charlie Fripp – Acting Online editor

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