Online computers, Africans do not have. Cellphones are a different story.
So why aren't journalism schools around the continent integrating the use of mobile devices fully and squarely into their courses? It's a question that could also apply in many other places - even in media dense environments.
Answers - and solutions - to this challenge were forthcoming in Grahamstown, South Africa, last week, when MobileActive's Katrin Verclas - a Knight grantee - ran a workshop with a selection of African journalism teachers at Rhodes University.
JD Lasica interviewed me at the Aspen Roundtable on Mobile Phones in Civic Engagement and posted the video on OurMedia - quite fitting. I am talking about MobileActive.org, and how the incredibly innovative and creative people of the MobileActive community are making the world a better place with your work, ideas, and knowledge. I describe some of the great projects that we have featured here - your projects, and your work. Thank you for all you do!
MobileActive's Katrin Verclas will be at PopTech in Maine for a special two-hour session on 'mobile empowerment." Together with Joe MacCarthy from Nokia and Nathan Eagle from MIT's EPROM project, we will explore how mobile phones are used in civil society, particularly in the developing world.
MobileActive will focus on civic empowerment and democratic participation, of course, and on economic empowerment. We will tell some of the stories of the mobile pioneers for social change around the world who are part of the MobileActive Community. Join us live!
