Dear Pam and All,

Greatest thanks for this posting, as it's always inspiring to see what you are
up to!! Also, I'm excited that it looks like you've made a connection with Derek
Keats--w/whom we just spoke during Global Learn Day in early October--in this
other setting!!  Did you know him from this COL forum before GLD, or did you
first "meet" (speak) during GLD and then connect via COL?

I'm also happy to see the COL connection w/regard to you, because I think your
work and that of FF could benefit from a link to them, and they could benefit
from knowing you. I do recall that you know Krishna Alluri (our GRASSUP mentor)
already, as he cc'd both of us re advising someone he knows in Nigeria this past
spring...does that mean you're working with COL already?  I'd like to know more
abt what you're doing along those lines.

Can you tell us more here abt the pc4innovation forum and work, too?  I'll also
try to find info, and will hopefully subscribe to the conference/forum in any
case, because it would surely inform the COL-related work myself and others in
GRASSUP NOW.

With immense appreciation for being such an invaluable "COL"-league, and yours
in Moodle magic!!  Janet  (ps did you see an article abt Moodle on DDN? I still
have it in case you didn't and would like me to post it here)

-----Original Message-----
>From: Pamela McLean <pam@...>
>Sent: Oct 18, 2006 4:19 PM
>To: learningfromeachother <learningfromeachother@yahoogroups.com>
>Subject: [learningfromeachother] Participation , Moodle , and Open content.
>
>Just to share what I am up to.
>The email trail below may be onf interst to anyone here who is
>interested in Participation , Moodle, or Open content.- you are very
>welcome to particiapte as outlined in the two emails below - Pam.
>
>-------- Original Message --------
>Subject:  Re: [iiep-oer] invitation to participate
>Date:  Wed, 18 Oct 2006 22:04:38 +0100
>From:  Pamela McLean <pam.mclean@...>
>Reply-To:  iiep-oer-opencontent@...
>To:  iiep-oer-opencontent@...
>References:
><6B83F4DB3587B94288564DE5F6EFEE550F2F4F40@...>
><1161151097.19366.38.camel@localhost>
>
>
>
>Derek Keats wrote
>
>>Much of the discussion I have heard so far has been based on looking at
>>big, prominent Free Software and open source projects. But there are
>>thousands of small projects with just a few people who come and go, and
>>that sometimes only live for months or a few years.
>>
>Our small Teacher's Talking project may be of interest to anyone who
>would like to explore some practicalities of working as part of a small
>voluntary team to create freely available resources.  It is not "normal"
>distance learning. It is not part of any formally assessed course, and
>the idea is not to deliver materials to course participants on-line.
>The online bit is coming because I want to make school-room resources,
>related to ICT, available to trainers, who will teach teachers, who will
>teach pupils about ICT. (I know the teachers like the approach, so now I
>want to share it with others trainers, instead of being the only person
>delivering the programme.)
>
>Details are in the email I wrote to a trainer in Botswana, which is
>copied below. I hope these resources may also feed into the CCNC and
>Wayne's COL wiki as appropriate. I'm not sure exactly what copyright
>thing it will be - except that people may as well use it, if it is
>useful to them.  (We are using Moodle because it provides us with a good
>"virtual meeting place" for our Special Interest Groups.) - Pam
>-------- Original Message --------
>Subject:  Re: [PCF4 Innovation] Innovations to fill the gap
>Date:  Tue, 17 Oct 2006 20:59:01 +0100
>From:  Pamela McLean <pam.mclean@...>
>Reply-To:  pcf4innovation@...
>To:  pcf4innovation@...
>References:  <7FC6BD090B08314C991FF9FDBF6612DE02B979C5@...>
>
>
>Dear Judith
>
>I was interested to read your email about teacher education in Botswana
>as I am involved in a small scale programme for teachers in rural
>Nigeria known as TT (Teachers Talking about ICTs).
>
>Part of the TT programme is a course called "NC3" (the No-Computer
>Computer Course) which may be relevant to your needs..
>
>I am about to visit some potential TT trainers in Nigeria and, in
>preparation, I have put some of the NC3 resources on the Internet at
>Cawdnet Campus (using Moodle) .  If you want to see the NC3 resources
>please go to http://moodle.cawd.net/  then click on the link to Teachers
>Talking programme and login. If you find anything useful you are welcome
>to make use of it. Please let me know if you do. (If you have any
>trouble accessing it then email me - because we are still rather new to
>using Moodle and things may not go quite as I hope/expect. However I'm
>unlikely to be able to reply to emails for a while.)
>
>There are more resources to come later. I have not put everything that I
>have prepared up there yet - and more is still "in my head" from face to
>face teaching. I also hope to invite people from this and other lists to
>collaborate with me in collecting/developing additional resources. I
>hope to set up a working group at Cawdnet Campus to do that when I get
>back from Nigeria.
>
>If anyone else is interested in seeing/using/helping to develop the
>resources please also visit http://moodle.cawd.net/  then click on the
>link to Teachers Talking programme and login. (If you know your way
>around Moodle and want to be proactive and start to use the forums
>please feel free - and I'll catch up with you when I get back.)
>
>Pam
>
>KAMAU, J.W. (MRS.) wrote:
>
>>Thanks for these reflections. I am involved in running a an in-service
>>teacher education in Botswana.we have an enrolment of about 2400. One of
>>the major challenges has been teaching a course in computer skills
>>outside of residential sessions because majority of learners have no
>>access to computers.  I would be interested to explore further the
>>issues you are raising about alternative access in a developing country
>>in the African context where the digital divide I would imagine is
>>highest.
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Judith Kamau
>>Coordinator Diploma in Primary Education by distance mode
>>University of Botswana
>>
>>
>-
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>Each letter sent to Learning From Each Other enters the PUBLIC DOMAIN unless it
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>

Thanks Janet.
Travelling soon - won't be able to reply before I get back. (Should be
early Nov)
Pam

I'm happy to report that Greg Wolff and Victor Colunga of UnaMesa Association
have sent out the first payment of $6,000 for our work on My Food Story.
This includes payments for the first three teams that we will feature.  I'm
now waiting for the eCheck to clear, and then to transfer the funds to my
checking account, so that will take about ten days total.

Samwel, please consider, how would be the best way to send you money?  Is it
possible for you to open a bank account so that I could send you a money
transfer?

Dante, Jeff, do you have PayPal accounts?

Please know that this is a modest amount of money ($500 plus bonuses) for
part-time work for a period of several months, long enough to get going a
community that has an interest in regularly contributing to our MyFoodStory
website and its list of stories and producers.  So it truly should be related
to your personal interests as much as possible.

My plan is to feature:
- Samwel Kongere (soybean, wifi, motivation to sacrifice) in October, 2006 at
a new group
- Dante Gabryell-Monson (cacao, concept mapping, paradigms for inspiration)
in November, 2006 - please confirm! at working-in-parallel
- Jeff Buderer (fish, George Chan's integrated farming and waste management,
sustainability) in December, 2006 at back-to-the-root

Also, Janet Feldman, it would be great if you might work as a team leader to
support Pamela McLean, for example, on chicken - learning from each other -
and multibandwidth interfaces, for example, in January, 2006.  There's quite
a bit of time to think about that.

Samwel, what would you like to name your new group?  It should be related to
your key concept of "motivation to sacrifice" in English or Kiswahili or
another language.

I have thought a lot about our various comments and have organized quite a
few of them at our wiki http://www.myfoodstory.org  My main concern is that
we have clear leaders with personal projects that might make for vibrant
communities that continue into the future.  Indeed, this is the main
deliverable that I face ("six vibrant communities") but it is also the main
goal that I have as a co-investor (that our independent thinkers grow in
depth and number).  Please understand that this is not a typical work-for-pay
but that we are all sharing this opportunity to build our assets that should
have value to us in the future.  And our greatest asset is our people.  So I
will look to each of you as an investigator that we are featuring, an
investigator whose project we're organizing around.  This will keep our
projects interesting because they will be open-ended to a degree, and we will
engage people to help us.  Also, your field agents will assist you in your
investigations and may have questions in their own right.  A key goal is that
by revealing your interests you will attract and hold together fantastic
people.

So please write about the project that you want to work on.  It should
highlight your chosen crop in a way that shows its meaning.  Your project
should help you reach out to people who might help you and who would be
interested in the long run.  As you write about your project we will
understand what producers and technologists to reach out to.  Certainly, your
project can involve several crops, several values, several technologies, as
Janet and others have suggested.  But for purposes of focused presentation
and focused investigation it is important to bring to the forefront one crop,
one value, one technology.  So I think the best is to make sure that the value
is one that you personally care greatly for.  This is how we will be sure to
attract and engage the right people as our helpers.

Please let's realize that we will be engaging people and they are of a very
wide range of consciousness, at least in the online sense.  Janet and all, it
is very important to keep separate how things seem to you (a few handfuls who
may be signed up to 10 groups) and how they seem to 90% of our 1000+ lurkers
(who typically are signed up to 1 group) and all the people in between.  My
goal, with our help, is to plan out how to engage people who will be
participating at different levels.

Samwel, Dante, Jeff, please think, who might be your field agents?  Please
write about the people who you would like to work for you.  They should be
people who have:
* demonstrated that they can work online by writing letters to our lab's
groups
* demonstrated they they can write about their personal values - what is
their deepest value that includes all their values? and an investigatory
question that they don't have the answer to, but intend to answer?
* demonstrated that they can "work for free", that they have a project of
their own that they are working on and can share with us.
Samwel Kongere was a great example of such a field agent and that is why he
is now a team leader.  Let's find more such examples!

We have many such candidates at Holistic Helping, see the pulldown for
thinkers at:
http://www.ms.lt/?venue=HH
and I invite more of us to speak up and introduce ourselves!

So we will need to work closely with our field agents and help them grow.

Also, we will want to have and build a team of people who will help us build
our resource.  We can develop a community currency to help reward them.  But
most important is to be responsive to their own projects and to reach out and
invite people who might benefit from working with us.

We will also want to reach out to producers.  But often they may participate
less actively, much like "lurkers".  So I'm interested in creating an email
driven "social ping" system which, as Thomas Kalka envisages, would contact
them every month or two with a questionnaire by which they might update, for
example, their producer profile or add a story.

We need to think about the data formats that we would like to maintain.  That
is the strength of our new system at http://www.myfoodstory.info  It is
straightforward to create new questionnaires (new object types) as this is as
easy as creating new wiki pages.  This will take some time to think through.
Also, I look forward to working with David Alan Body of http://www.xigi.net
to see how we might most usefully exchange data.

Also, Greg has encouraged us to think about business models for the future.
Steve Bosserman and I have quite a few ideas.  One simple one is to contact
Andrea Mills of Italy Innovation Lab, he is interested in funding work on
projects similar to the chocolate project, and we might build a version of
our system for the Piacenza, Italy region just as we are for the Columbus,
Ohio region.

Those are some questions on my mind for now.

Greetings from Tel Aviv, Israel,

Good night!

Andrius

Andrius Kulikauskas
Minciu Sodas
http://www.ms.lt
ms@...
+370 (699) 30003

Hi everyone,

I thought that this would be of great interest around here.  I got it from Stephen Dpwes at:  http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=36189

Steve Hargadon Interview with Martin Dougiamas, Creator of Moodle

In case the previous links do not lead to the interview:  http://stevehargadon.blogspot.com/2006/10/interview-with-martin-dougiamas.html

cheers,

Benoit

Hi everyone,

Is this worth some brainstorming to decide if Minciu Sodas' various front line groups should come up with a strategy to promote the best of what we know to be the best?

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We believe that business--capitalist business--is a profound force for positive change. Help us prove it.

Unlike many other awards and contests, the Fast 50 uses a relatively straightforward nomination form that emphasizes brevity and clarity over lengthy detail – surely the result of having top-notch reporters and researchers on staff. The Fast 50 Awards will accept nominations until December 1. Readers may nominate all businesses or initiatives regardless of whether or not they have a stake in the project. For a list of the 2006 Fast 50, check the FC archives.

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Lucas,
Thank you for updating us at your blog:
http://www.ourculture.info/wiki.cgi?LucasGonzalezSantaCruz/Blog
I share with our Mejores Vias and Learning From Each Other groups.  I also
share my reply.  I'll be encouraging us to organize poultry farmers in
Nigeria and around the world as people who might be most interested to share
helpful information regarding a pandemic flu that we want to be prepared for.
  This would be great for our http://www.myfoodstory.com project
Andrius Kulikauskas
ms@...
http://www.ms.lt
-----------------------


It feels like it's been a very long time since I don't come around this page.
  Since then I've been:
* awaiting http://www.worldchanging.com/book and some other books on
permaculture and stuff.
* helping some local permaculturers (as time allows).
* watching the translation of Dr Woodson's
[http://www.fluwikie.com/pmwiki.php?n=Opinion.En-GoodHomeTreatment1 Good Home
Treatment] manual.  The first product will be his "Flu Treatment Kit".
* learning lots about flu and
[http://www.fluwikie2.com/pmwiki.php?n=Forum.IOMWorkshopModelingCommunityContain\
mentForPandemicInfluenza
how to minimise waves].  Actually, the global community of flu warriors is
[http://www.fluwikie.com/pmwiki.php?n=Opinion.OutlineSummary co-learning]
[http://www.fluwikie.com/pmwiki.php?n=Opinion.ForumTopics a lot] - so much we
don't know and need to know!

My current summary about pandemic flu:
* [http://www.fluwikie.com/pmwiki.php?n=Main.ConfirmedCasesUpdated More
cases] and
[http://www.fluwikie.com/pmwiki.php?n=Science.GraphOfClusterSizeAndFrequencyOver\
Time
visibly more clusters] of bird-flu in humans.  At least one of the clusters
was h2h2h (April 2006).  "It could start at any time" - Dr Nabarro (UN).
No-one knows when or how hard, but it could be H5N1, and there's no
biological reason for H5N1 to give us a much lower Case-Fatality Ratio.
* Aims: Make peak(s) lower and longer, so that at any one time more healthy
people will be able to keep society running and will also be able to treat a
smaller number of ill people.
* What will work: social distance (tricky in Calcutta and Kibera, will need
lots of creative thinking), simple masks and hand-washing (not sure which
will have more effect, but both need some resources), good home care (this
needs stocking up on some simple things and some simple knowledge), community
self-reliance (food, water, energy, communications, care).  Maybe statins
(used to lower cholesterol levels, hence unexpensive, generic, stockable)
will help treat cytokine storm, even at home.

Andrius, sorry I haven't responded to your invitation; lately, my plate is
more than full.  Best wishes for the Lab and Networks!

'''Comments'''

AndriusKulikauskas: Lucas, thank you for your update!  I will assume that the
poultry farmers (for example, in Nigeria) are a logical network for sharing
pandemic flu information (due to their self-interest that people be correctly
informed and to regulate themselves).  As we develop this, we will keep you in
mind!  Thank you for your important work! and for remembering us!

Dear Jonathan Schafler,
I'm glad to learn from Graham Douglas of your work as a social entrepreneur
to create wiki-based educational materials.
We have been working on similar projects at our Minciu Sodas laboratory
http://www.ms.lt   I share with our working groups for "learning from each
other" http://groups.yahoo.com/group/learningfromeachother/ and "global
villages" http://groups.yahoo.com/group/globalvillages/  Please also note our
work on MyFoodStory http://www.myfoodstory.com  I invite you to join us!
Andrius Kulikauskas, http://www.ms.lt
-------------------------------------
GiveThought.com (GT) is a wiki-based social entrepreneurship concept.  GT
will gather wiki lesson contributions to form coherent customizable learning
curricula to be offered for free around the world to

+Those who are unable to access formal education.
+Those who wish to complement their formal educations
+Those who wish to access information about subjective topics from an
organized and coherent source.

If you are interested in learning about or participating in the development
of project GT, please contact founder Jonathan Schafler at:

jms53@...

Note: GiveThought.com is a social entrepreneurial venture.  The originator of
the concept will try to find a role for anyone interested in participating in
its development but does not grant the right to use, sell or develop the
concept without express written consent from the owner of GiveThought.com.
--------------------------------------------------------------

Andrius,

Jonathan Schafler is developing a wiki based social entrepreneurship website
concept and is seeking feedback and expressions of interest at
JSchafler@... . He is hosting the explanatory PPT presentation
temporarily at: http://www.givethought.com

Kind regards,
Graham Douglas

FOUNDER,
INTEGRATIVE FEDERATION tm
Achieving Sustainable Development
4 Cintra Street, Ipswich, Australia 4305
61 7 3282 9762; Skype: integrative
integrative@...
www.integrative-thinking.com

Jonathan, Thank you for your reply!  I spoke today with Franz Nahrada of our
Global Villages working group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/globalvillages/
and he saw your Power Point presentation and encourages you to look at
existing structures such as our Minciu Sodas lab.  He invites you to join us.
  I also invite you to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/learningfromeachother/ led
by Pamela McLean who just returned from Nigeria (any news Pam?)  Please join
us at either or both groups and let's discuss further! your work is very
relevant. I also inform our groups the good news that we got EU approval for
a "utopias" project in which we will get co-funding for video bridges
technology in Lithuania, one unit for our Atzalynas center and a mobile unit.
  Andrius, http://www.ms.lt
------------------------

Andrius,

Thank you kindly for your note.  Although I have not had a chance to review
your
websites in great detail, I greatly respect your efforts to create
collaborative
wiki-based learning projects.

In my view, there is a deep need for a wiki-based website with objective and
subjective information organized in a curriculum format such as one
encounters
at a university.  Information on the Internet tends to lack in the coherence
and focus of educational courses.

Despite having a full map of how I envision the GiveThought website
appearing
aesthetically and functioning, I do not have sufficient programming
expertise
at my disposal to make it a reality.  Do you know of anyone who would be
willing to discuss involvement in this worthy social entrepreneurial
venture?

I look forward to hearing back from you.

Best regards,
Jonathan Schafler

Jonathan.Schafler@...



Quoting ms@...:

> Dear Jonathan Schafler,
> I'm glad to learn from Graham Douglas of your work as a social
entrepreneur
> to create wiki-based educational materials.
> We have been working on similar projects at our Minciu Sodas laboratory
> http://www.ms.lt   I share with our working groups for "learning from each
> other" http://groups.yahoo.com/group/learningfromeachother/ and "global
> villages" http://groups.yahoo.com/group/globalvillages/  Please also note
our
> work on MyFoodStory http://www.myfoodstory.com  I invite you to join us!
> Andrius Kulikauskas, http://www.ms.lt
> -------------------------------------
> GiveThought.com (GT) is a wiki-based social entrepreneurship concept.  GT
> will gather wiki lesson contributions to form coherent customizable
learning
> curricula to be offered for free around the world to
>
> +Those who are unable to access formal education.
> +Those who wish to complement their formal educations
> +Those who wish to access information about subjective topics from an
> organized and coherent source.
>
> If you are interested in learning about or participating in the
development
> of project GT, please contact founder Jonathan Schafler at:
>
> jms53@...
>
> Note: GiveThought.com is a social entrepreneurial venture.  The originator
of
> the concept will try to find a role for anyone interested in participating
in
> its development but does not grant the right to use, sell or develop the
> concept without express written consent from the owner of GiveThought.com.
> --------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Andrius,
>
> Jonathan Schafler is developing a wiki based social entrepreneurship
website
> concept and is seeking feedback and expressions of interest at
> JSchafler@... . He is hosting the explanatory PPT presentation
> temporarily at: http://www.givethought.com
>
> Kind regards,
> Graham Douglas
>
> FOUNDER,
> INTEGRATIVE FEDERATION tm
> Achieving Sustainable Development
> 4 Cintra Street, Ipswich, Australia 4305
> 61 7 3282 9762; Skype: integrative
> integrative@...
> www.integrative-thinking.com

Dear Janet and Lucas,
   There is achool in oyugis about 50km ..out of kisumu
city ..in this instution the deaf occasionally come to
learn agriculture..but the challenge is now to be
empowered for practice many abruptly chnge and we
loose proffesionals so they end up on odd jobs.
  In one survey I interviwed aman who was looking fo
apoultry keeper and many prefered the deaf to tis
work.
1 They handle this birs with zeal.
2 They love to keep their proffesion and show
effeciency
3 They have great love for what they see producing.
In kisumu ..whree eggs are on demand we can have an im
proved way of helping this deaf so that thier
potential is not wasted..
   We can empowe them to begin with ust few birds even
the locals to begin with..are you able to give us new
ways of dong this to this group of people.
TOM OCHUKA.

--- ms@... wrote:

> Lucas,
> Thank you for updating us at your blog:
>
http://www.ourculture.info/wiki.cgi?LucasGonzalezSantaCruz/Blog
> I share with our Mejores Vias and Learning From Each
> Other groups.  I also
> share my reply.  I'll be encouraging us to organize
> poultry farmers in
> Nigeria and around the world as people who might be
> most interested to share
> helpful information regarding a pandemic flu that we
> want to be prepared for.
>  This would be great for our
> http://www.myfoodstory.com project
> Andrius Kulikauskas
> ms@...
> http://www.ms.lt
> -----------------------
>
>
> It feels like it's been a very long time since I
> don't come around this page.
>  Since then I've been:
> * awaiting http://www.worldchanging.com/book and
> some other books on
> permaculture and stuff.
> * helping some local permaculturers (as time
> allows).
> * watching the translation of Dr Woodson's
>
[http://www.fluwikie.com/pmwiki.php?n=Opinion.En-GoodHomeTreatment1
> Good Home
> Treatment] manual.  The first product will be his
> "Flu Treatment Kit".
> * learning lots about flu and
>
[http://www.fluwikie2.com/pmwiki.php?n=Forum.IOMWorkshopModelingCommunityContain\
mentForPandemicInfluenza
> how to minimise waves].  Actually, the global
> community of flu warriors is
>
[http://www.fluwikie.com/pmwiki.php?n=Opinion.OutlineSummary
> co-learning]
>
[http://www.fluwikie.com/pmwiki.php?n=Opinion.ForumTopics
> a lot] - so much we
> don't know and need to know!
>
> My current summary about pandemic flu:
> *
>
[http://www.fluwikie.com/pmwiki.php?n=Main.ConfirmedCasesUpdated
> More
> cases] and
>
[http://www.fluwikie.com/pmwiki.php?n=Science.GraphOfClusterSizeAndFrequencyOver\
Time
> visibly more clusters] of bird-flu in humans.  At
> least one of the clusters
> was h2h2h (April 2006).  "It could start at any
> time" - Dr Nabarro (UN).
> No-one knows when or how hard, but it could be H5N1,
> and there's no
> biological reason for H5N1 to give us a much lower
> Case-Fatality Ratio.
> * Aims: Make peak(s) lower and longer, so that at
> any one time more healthy
> people will be able to keep society running and will
> also be able to treat a
> smaller number of ill people.
> * What will work: social distance (tricky in
> Calcutta and Kibera, will need
> lots of creative thinking), simple masks and
> hand-washing (not sure which
> will have more effect, but both need some
> resources), good home care (this
> needs stocking up on some simple things and some
> simple knowledge), community
> self-reliance (food, water, energy, communications,
> care).  Maybe statins
> (used to lower cholesterol levels, hence
> unexpensive, generic, stockable)
> will help treat cytokine storm, even at home.
>
> Andrius, sorry I haven't responded to your
> invitation; lately, my plate is
> more than full.  Best wishes for the Lab and
> Networks!
>
> '''Comments'''
>
> AndriusKulikauskas: Lucas, thank you for your
> update!  I will assume that the
> poultry farmers (for example, in Nigeria) are a
> logical network for sharing
> pandemic flu information (due to their self-interest
> that people be correctly
> informed and to regulate themselves).  As we develop
> this, we will keep you in
> mind!  Thank you for your important work! and for
> remembering us!
>
>
> Each letter sent to Learning From Each Other enters
> the PUBLIC DOMAIN unless it explicitly states
> otherwise http://www.ethicalpublicdomain.org  Please
> be kind to our authors!
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/learningfromeachother/join
>     (Yahoo! ID required)
>
>
>
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>
> learningfromeachother-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
>
>





________________________________________________________________________________\
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Hello Dear Tom, Lucas, and All,

Terrific to hear from you, Tom, and I'll respond to other posts you've made soon
too, I hope (have been offline a lot lately, through Nov).  I wanted to comment
on this, though:  in these forums we have focused primarily on bird flu, not
keeping chickens per se, but I think what you're saying is very interesting and
important.

I have a few questions:

1) how can we be of help to you and the Deaf community in Kisumu in this regard?
2) are you interested in the My FoodStory project?  I think it would be
excellent and insightful if you were to gather stories of people in the deaf
community in Kisumu, in terms of their connections to food production. Would
that be something you'd be interested in, and/or find useful?
3) are you interested in the COL-Protein grant?  We might work with Sam and
others to create an ICTs-enabled learning environment related to keeping
chickens, and also bird flu.  I've been talking with Maria Agnese, Sam, and
others abt doing something with ICTs, a learning center, and distance/open
education, and COL-Protein is oriented in this direction.

Will be in touch again soon, and in the meantime and always, greatest thanks and
blessings for your invaluable work! Janet



-----Original Message-----
>From: tom ochuka <tomochuka@...>
>Sent: Nov 8, 2006 12:29 AM
>To: learningfromeachother@yahoogroups.com
>Subject: Re: [learningfromeachother] THE DEAF CAN...KEEP CICKEN ..FOR EGGS  AND
OTHERS
>
>Dear Janet and Lucas,
>  There is achool in oyugis about 50km ..out of kisumu
>city ..in this instution the deaf occasionally come to
>learn agriculture..but the challenge is now to be
>empowered for practice many abruptly chnge and we
>loose proffesionals so they end up on odd jobs.
> In one survey I interviwed a man who was looking fo
>apoultry keeper and many prefered the deaf to tis
>work.
>1 They handle this birs with zeal.
>2 They love to keep their proffesion and show
>effeciency
>3 They have great love for what they see producing.
>In kisumu ..whree eggs are on demand we can have an im
>proved way of helping this deaf so that thier
>potential is not wasted..
>  We can empowe them to begin with ust few birds even
>the locals to begin with..are you able to give us new
>ways of dong this to this group of people.
>TOM OCHUKA.
>
>--- ms@... wrote:
>
>> Lucas,
>> Thank you for updating us at your blog:
>>
>http://www.ourculture.info/wiki.cgi?LucasGonzalezSantaCruz/Blog
>> I share with our Mejores Vias and Learning From Each
>> Other groups.  I also
>> share my reply.  I'll be encouraging us to organize
>> poultry farmers in
>> Nigeria and around the world as people who might be
>> most interested to share
>> helpful information regarding a pandemic flu that we
>> want to be prepared for.
>>  This would be great for our
>> http://www.myfoodstory.com project
>> Andrius Kulikauskas
>> ms@...
>> http://www.ms.lt
>> -----------------------
>>
>>
>> It feels like it's been a very long time since I
>> don't come around this page.
>>  Since then I've been:
>> * awaiting http://www.worldchanging.com/book and
>> some other books on
>> permaculture and stuff.
>> * helping some local permaculturers (as time
>> allows).
>> * watching the translation of Dr Woodson's
>>
>[http://www.fluwikie.com/pmwiki.php?n=Opinion.En-GoodHomeTreatment1
>> Good Home
>> Treatment] manual.  The first product will be his
>> "Flu Treatment Kit".
>> * learning lots about flu and
>>
>[http://www.fluwikie2.com/pmwiki.php?n=Forum.IOMWorkshopModelingCommunityContai\
nmentForPandemicInfluenza
>> how to minimise waves].  Actually, the global
>> community of flu warriors is
>>
>[http://www.fluwikie.com/pmwiki.php?n=Opinion.OutlineSummary
>> co-learning]
>>
>[http://www.fluwikie.com/pmwiki.php?n=Opinion.ForumTopics
>> a lot] - so much we
>> don't know and need to know!
>>
>> My current summary about pandemic flu:
>> *
>>
>[http://www.fluwikie.com/pmwiki.php?n=Main.ConfirmedCasesUpdated
>> More
>> cases] and
>>
>[http://www.fluwikie.com/pmwiki.php?n=Science.GraphOfClusterSizeAndFrequencyOve\
rTime
>> visibly more clusters] of bird-flu in humans.  At
>> least one of the clusters
>> was h2h2h (April 2006).  "It could start at any
>> time" - Dr Nabarro (UN).
>> No-one knows when or how hard, but it could be H5N1,
>> and there's no
>> biological reason for H5N1 to give us a much lower
>> Case-Fatality Ratio.
>> * Aims: Make peak(s) lower and longer, so that at
>> any one time more healthy
>> people will be able to keep society running and will
>> also be able to treat a
>> smaller number of ill people.
>> * What will work: social distance (tricky in
>> Calcutta and Kibera, will need
>> lots of creative thinking), simple masks and
>> hand-washing (not sure which
>> will have more effect, but both need some
>> resources), good home care (this
>> needs stocking up on some simple things and some
>> simple knowledge), community
>> self-reliance (food, water, energy, communications,
>> care).  Maybe statins
>> (used to lower cholesterol levels, hence
>> unexpensive, generic, stockable)
>> will help treat cytokine storm, even at home.
>>
>> Andrius, sorry I haven't responded to your
>> invitation; lately, my plate is
>> more than full.  Best wishes for the Lab and
>> Networks!
>>
>> '''Comments'''
>>
>> AndriusKulikauskas: Lucas, thank you for your
>> update!  I will assume that the
>> poultry farmers (for example, in Nigeria) are a
>> logical network for sharing
>> pandemic flu information (due to their self-interest
>> that people be correctly
>> informed and to regulate themselves).  As we develop
>> this, we will keep you in
>> mind!  Thank you for your important work! and for
>> remembering us!
>>
>>
>> Each letter sent to Learning From Each Other enters
>> the PUBLIC DOMAIN unless it explicitly states
>> otherwise http://www.ethicalpublicdomain.org  Please
>> be kind to our authors!
>> Yahoo! Groups Links
>>
>>
>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/learningfromeachother/join
>>     (Yahoo! ID required)
>>
>>
>>
>mailto:learningfromeachother-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
>>
>> learningfromeachother-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________________________________________\
_____
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>
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>Sign up now. http://www.vonage.com/startsavingnow/
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to our authors!
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>

I share my report to Lithuania's Socrates Grundtvig agency on my
travel to the meeting of the MIR Learning Partnership.
http://www.dorfwiki.org/wiki.cgi?MIR  Thank you to Franz Nahrada for
this great opportunity, to Christophis Antoniou of Episkopi for his
village's hospitality, to all our partners for new possibilities, and
to our Socrates agency for its support.  I am especially motivated to
start work on our self-education program for traveling self-learners.
  I will be staying for one month at the university in Nablus,
Palestine to create a course for nonviolent engagement.  They also
have video bridge facilities.  We will also be getting such next year
at our headquarters in Lithuania.  Peace, Andrius Kulikauskas,
http://www.ms.lt
------------------------------------------

1. Impact of the visit on the institutions / organisations, on the
initiation / submission of new projects / applications and in
particular the submission of (intention to submit) concrete new
project applications under Grundtvig

The MIR learning partnership members decided to invite Minciu Sodas as
a partner in the second year of the learning partnership, 2007. With
the approval of Lithuania's Socrates fund, Minciu Sodas will organize
in July, 2008 a meeting of the partners with self-learners and their
educators. The partners encouraged Minciu Sodas to ask Lithuania's
Socrates Fund for support so that Andrius Kulikauskas might
participate at the next meeting in Dublin, Ireland, March, 2007.

2. Brief summary of the visit and the main results achieved

In the first MIR partnership meeting the partners discussed the three
year plan of activity and all of the information necessary for the
application for the learning partnership for the second year. Episkopi
mayor Christophis Antoniou showed us his village and the surroundings,
with their plans to create an adult education cetner and with their
new ideas for developing agriculture. Minciu Sodas participant Franz
Nahrada of Austria taught us how to use ProWiki, an Internet interface
for working together. We committed in each country to bring together a
group of about 20 adult learners who are willing to help each other.
Minciu Sodas agreed to create an educational program for self-learners
founded on the visiting of independent thinkers and learning by their
example, how to dream up and pursue one's own endeavors. The partners
agreed to advise and at the July 2008 meeting in Lithuania help Minciu
Sodas approach formal educational institutions as to how they might
officially recognize the achievements of the self-learners.
http://www.dorfwiki.org/wiki.cgi?MIR/public/EpiskopiMeeting

3. Identification and justification / explanation of any differences,
compared with the original application, as regards:

the aims of the visit

The main purpose was to get to know the partners and to join the MIR
learning partnership, and this was accomplished. It became apparent,
that the ProWiki technology used by Minciu Sodas is sufficient for now
for coordinating the partner's work and that further development of
this technology is not necessary unless perhaps later, when we will
help connect self-learners from various countries. The greatest
contribution by Minciu Sodas will be to create a learning program for
self-learners and with the help of our partners to find ways that
formal educational institutions might recognize, certify and credit
some of the self-learner's achievements. The partners did not find
time at the meeting to create the evaluation questionnaires for
partnership activity.

the visit itself: duration and destination; identification and
function / role of the participants (both in the home and in the host
institutions)

Everything took place according to plan. There were partners from
Cyprus (Episkopi mayor Christophis Antoniou), Germany (Heinz Tischler
and Herta Waechter from the adult education regional agency
Volkshochschule Kronach), Austria (Franz Nahrada and Laurent
Straskraba from GIVE, a laboratory for the future of villages),
Ireland (Liz Waters and Avril Bailey from the community educational
centre An Cosan) and Lithuania (Andrius Kulikauskas of Minciu Sodas, a
laboratory for independent thinkers).


4. Presentation / description of :

the activities carried out (including needs analysis in the area of a
prospective Learning Partnership)

The partners agreed on general principles in their work to relate
local education and local development. They also discussed with the
coordinators (from Germany) the most important questions relevant for
the MIR learning partnership's second year application. They agreed
when and where the meetings will take place during the next three years.

the results and outcomes achieved (including unexpected results,
side-effects, etc.)

At the request of Andrius Kulikauskas of Minciu Sodas, the partners
expressed what they personally wanted to achieve through the
partnership. The municipality of Episkopi wants their new adult
education centre to be able to help farmers, hotel managers and others
use the Internet to connect with others in the world having broader
experience. The leaders of An Cosan wanted to make better use of the
Internet for their website and at their centre. The leader of
Volkshochschule Kronach is exploring, how to help their students find
their inner motivation. GIVE researchers are investigating how to
support the local educational insitutions of the future. The
direktorius of Minciu Sodas wants to extend his laboratory with a
network of traveling self-learners, especially in the villages, and to
learn how to work together with educational institutions. He drew up
the elements of such a system with input from GIVE leader and Minciu
Sodas participant Franz Nahrada. All of the partners agreed to be
subscribed to Minciu Sodas email working groups. New Minciu Sodas
groups were created for activity in Greek and Turkish. The leaders of
An Cosan invited Andrius Kulikauskas to attend the meeting in Dublin,
Ireland in March, 2007 and offered to provide accomodation.


future cooperation plans between the home and host organisations /
institutions of the visit


The hospitality of our hosts was most inviting, therefore two more
meetings are scheduled to take place in Cyprus. We hope that the mayor
will be reelected, but he did introduce us to the other candidate, so
that in any event we expect continuity. We agreed to make a special
effort to support the adult education Internet centre which they are
building. Andrius Kulikauskas of Minciu Sodas signed up several
residents of Episkopi for Minciu Sodas discussion in Greek, and also
visited the Turkish occupied area and signed up several Turkish
dissidents seeking reunification of the island. He extended his trip
to Cyprus with travel through Izrael, Palestine and Turkey to look for
Islamic independent thinkers and include them in Minciu Sodas
activity. Such journeys to and through Cyprus are very fruitful and
make it an excellent base.


The impact of the visit on the home organisation / institution


The MIR learning partnership meeting set in motion the Minciu Sodas
dream to create an education program for self-learners, and emboldened
Minciu Sodas to look for points of contact with institutions of higher
education and to continue to pay attention to independent thinkers in
Lithuania's villages. The travel onward to Israel has brought new
participants to Minciu Sodas working groups fostering „loving God",
„fighting peacefully", „living by truth" and „social agriculture".
Andrius Kulikauskas has been invited to An-Najah National University
in Nablus, Palestine for one month to create a course on nonviolent
engagement.


5. Administrative observations and general remarks on:

funding (Grundtvig grant and other contributions, in terms of the
amounts awarded and any administrative aspects)

The amount for travel was sufficient and Lithuania's Socrates fund
created wonderful good feeling through its flexibility and positive
approach that this amount might be applied for a travel route that
would multiply the value for Minciu Sodas, Lithuania, Europe and the
world, quite possibly with a net savings for the Socrates fund.

advice, support and assistance received (role of the NA, local /
regional authorities, socio-economic partners, EU, etc.)

The cost of accommodation was unexpectedly high, 93 euros per night,
but the mayor of Episkopi wished that everyone stay together at the
village's hotel, and thus generally agreed to lower the price for the
Minciu Sodas participant and cover the difference. He also found
sponsors for each evening's meals, thus eliminating these expenses. We
learned how to receive guests with great hospitality.

6. Recommendations / feedback on the practical implementation of the
visit and covering aspects such as


Difficulties encountered

At first it was not clear for the Minciu Sodas representative what
were the personal goals of each partner, especially, because he did
not participate in creating the program. The partners made everything
clear!

Initial effects

Andrius Kulikauskas and Franz Nahrada discussed an outline for the
Minciu Sodas self-learning program and Andrius has started writing it
up. The leaders of An Cosan have signed up for the Minciu Sodas
working group „learning from each other". At Minciu Sodas, attention
has grown towards nomadic self-learners as they will be key to our
learning program.

Value of the grant relative to total cost

Cyprus is a much more expensive country than Lithuania. The Cypriot
pound is more expensive than the British pound.

European added value

It became apparent, that our organizations all arose from the grass
roots but are different as to their age. Each has followed a path of
achieving recognition from formal insitutions. The German activity
started one hundred years ago, the Irish twenty five years ago, the
Cypriot will start next year, the Austrian had a breakthrough this
year, and the greater part of our own work is very much in the future.
The older institutions seek fresh inspiration and the new ones seek
experience, so that their learner's achievements could receive proper
recognition.

Administrative constraints related to the application, contract and
final report procedures

It was not entirely clear, at what time the air ticket may and should
be purchased.

Samwel,

Thank you for your profound work for Lucas Gonzalez Santa Cruz to interview
people in your area as to what they would do in the event of a pandemic flu
outbreak.  I invite your colleagues to join Lucas's email group: Send a blank
message to mejoresvias-subscribe@yahoogroups.com  or write to me at ms@...
and I will sign you up.

Andrius Kulikauskas
Minciu Sodas, http://www.ms.lt, ms@..., +370 (699) 30003
---------------------------------------------------


Write your personal Information and try to present yourself by giving
detailed information on, how you will get your community be prepared incase
there is an outbreak of Bird Flu pandemic or any disaster in  your area. Your
personal information will help those in our forum to contact you later for
reference.


Personal Information:

Name: Wilson Otieno Audi

Address: P.O Box 191, Mbita 40305

Country:  Kenya


Occupation:  Fisherman Luanda Rombo beach


What you would do if there was bird flu? And tell me, how you would educate
the people about the facts on bird flu preparedness.

With the manageable information I have, there are lots of advice and
teachings I can give to people incase there is any Bird flu attack in this
area. We are under threat of the bird flu even though our government says we
are safe.

Indigenous birds are always in close contact with human beings, usually there
is no separate poultry house. As such they live in the same houses with
people. Poultry are in close contact with children to the extent of
`poaching` children’s food as they eat. This close association with human
beings is worth considering under the prevailing threat.
Occasionally there may be the unfortunate behavior of eating sick or dead
birds.
There is also problem of mishandling the dead birds infected without
knowledge of its effects to ones health.
Problem of inhaliation of dust while cleaning in poultry house without mask.


As per the above record we have to get ready measures to protect the people
from dying by:

Maintaining poultry in a limited area and avoid communal ranging. Fence
homesteads with cheap locally available materials to save costs. This will
minimize contact with wild birds or neighboring flocks.
Construct bird proof structures for poultry. Use of cheap locally available
material will safeguard on the costs. This will keep away predators, wild
birds, neighboring poultry, pigs and limited poultry contacts.
Vaccinate poultry against the common diseases such as new castle, Gumboro,
and fowl typhoid.
Make the community report all the sickness or death of poultry/ birds to the
nearest veterinary office, public health office or any government office near
them.
I can encourage them to have their poultry examined by qualified personnel.
Lastly I can encourage families to cook their poultry meat properly.



Would you leave the pandemic to continue?

I cannot leave our community to suffer but would do the necessary help
possible. In case there are many birds or poultry death the first thing I
would do is to notify the nearest Veterinary Officer for action, I have to
show my commitment to help and be always responsible. It is necessary to take
samples of the dead birds to the laboratories for analysis to identify the
cause of death…..and then think of disposing the dead birds as safely as
possible to avoid further spread of deaths and human handling them.

We have to get others oriented with this to be able to give advice properly,
but I cannot leave. We must have key always there to give support whenever
there is an attack.


If you leave, get sick, with pandemic, who could replace you?

It is important to mention that dead birds should not be eaten. There are
beliefs among us that that poultry diseases cannot affect human beings….the
disease is transferable from bird to man, just the mere handling of the
infected bird leave alone eating it. So far it can affect all living beings
and people are liable to pass different information to who can help in case
there is an out break. There must be trained personnel…and this is what we
are to do.


What are their plans in the event of any kind of emergency (disaster)?

In the event or before any out break I plan to make a combined force which
can disseminate information and make the people be well conversant with the
out come of the bird flu. We must set guidelines for handling the dead bird
from unknown origin or those that may die on our homes and farms.

We need to train the community on packing the dead birds and disposing them,
on holding them with protected hands and pulling them for disposal.


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online.

--------------------------------------------------------------

  Write your personal Information and try to present yourself by giving
detailed information on, how you will get your community be prepared incase
there is an outbreak of Bird Flu pandemic or any disaster in  your area. Your
personal information will help those in our forum to contact you later for
reference.


Personal Information: Solomon Okongo Oyugi

Address: P.O Box 150 Mbita 40305

Email: riegso AT yahoo DOT com

Country: Kenya

Occupation: Fisherman

What you would do if there was bird flu? And tell me, how you would educate
the people about the facts on bird flu preparedness.

  I must have an Idea on how the bird flu can affect my life and the rest of
the community members; I must also know how the pandemic will affect the
entire population. This is in regard to knowing the side effects of the avian
influenza. Get information and training on disaster issues. So for, in this
case there must be some knowledge on how to control the pandemic. This is in
itself being professional or just basic knowledge on how to give a leeway for
the community on matters pertaining to their protection and control of
pandemics.



Would you leave the pandemic to continue?

Going by the effects and stories heard from the other areas of the world we
must see ways of getting ready to control and contain the disaster in any way
possible to help the entire population. We have heard of the pandemic as a
great killer to every living thing every time it struck and we should not
wait to see it destroy us.  This will mean getting the first aid kits to
fight the pandemic and training on the measures to control; because, if I
leave the pandemic to continue it will kill even me or my own blood
relationships. We have to be informed from those stories and be prepared and
act accordingly to help.


If you leave, get sick, with pandemic, who could replace you?

Taking the necessary measures available for me and my community to protect
their lives, this will mean training those who are available to be always
prepared to control, and my dying or on my demise, there can be gotten some
people with knowledge to go on to fight the pandemic, whether I am there or
not.


What are their plans in the event of any kind of emergency (disaster)?

  In the event of any disaster we have to prepare the people in ways of
protecting themselves. We can go ahead by forming disaster management
committees to counter check on the protection moves. We can train these
people to form sub committees on disaster as HELP DESKS which can be
scattered all over the place for disaster information. This will help
maintain the information about any outbreak.

We have to make sure the health problem issues are reported to the relevant
bodies as fast as possible to learn of any possible outbreak which needs
attention.
Lastly we must get this information circulated in our area and the entire
region or even shared with the international disaster organizations that can
be able to network and help.


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online.

--------------------------------------------

  Write your personal Information and try to present yourself by giving
detailed information on, how you will get your community be prepared incase
there is an outbreak of Bird Flu pandemic or any disaster in  your area. Your
personal information will help those in our forum to contact you later for
reference.


Personal Information: Kenneth Kaunda Osiko

Address: P.O Box 191 Mbita 40305

Email: kenosiko AT yahoo DOT com

Cell: +254 723356061

Country: Kenya

Occupation: Carpenter

What you would do if there was bird flu? And tell me, how you would educate
the people about the facts on bird flu preparedness.

The emergence of the Avian Influenza which is a virus disease affecting all
birds and can bring tremendous deaths to even human beings is still scary to
us and when we hear of several outcome of this disease from the other parts
of the world makes our mind prepared for any out break here.

This and other facts make it possible for anybody to be always on the alert
and have to get ways of protecting oneself and the community surrounding. On
my side I can make it known to others and let them prepare and get measures
to protect themselves. Given the results from the possible attack of the
pandemic everybody has to be on the alert. People including me, need some
training on basic skills to be prepared.

There is one point which can make me blame our government for keeping quite
on the Issue on bird flu possible attack. When we heard it a far they could
inform the people here to do some first Aid training to be prepared. You find
them making posters well communicated but do not sensitize the community
including those in the rural villages for possible alert.

Action can speak for this, villagers can still eat already attacked poultry
by say `New castle` and might be a possible Avian Influenza as we were told
recently. You know by this time of the year September to March chicks die and
this is when there is several out breaks and this is the most appropriate time
to help train the community for differentiating the poultry diseases not
making announcements over the radio and TVs that is not enough, because they
are still very conversant with their traditional ways of rearing poultry.

According to me I can get up in arms to train and a task force for helping on
possible preparedness on the bird flu can be imminent.

Would you leave the pandemic to continue?

The above facts are enough to say that I should not leave the pandemic to
destroy our compact community. I have to act when there is a way out to help.
If I get resources necessary to make us be prepared I can not leave pandemic
to continue without a struggle vision through my capability.


If you leave, get sick, with pandemic, who could replace you?

With a deeper concentrated act of whatever should be done to make the
community be prepared on guarding themselves, there is no need to leave the
community suffers. When we attended the Bird Flu workshop organized by the
district Livestock department and Samwel Kongere’s network, we were told
there is no need to worry as our region is still safe from the possible
attack. This is not enough in reality, as the people need more information on
preparedness not control. From the workshop I am determined to do something
not to leave when there is an attack.

What are their plans in the event of any kind of emergency (disaster), as you
Mr. Ken what do you plan to do when there an attack?

As a community man and being very responsible in many ways in the community,
I have to prepare the community from any slight attack as possible; we are
prepared to form a community committee which could give instructions to other
in case there is an out break. In this matter, we are suppose to contact all
stakeholders who can disseminate information to the grass root families……and
I am ready to join this worthy course.


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  Write your personal Information and try to present yourself by giving
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reference.


Personal Information:

Name: Jackton Amayo Arija

Address: P.O. Box 30, Mbita 40305

Email: jarija2000 AT yahoo DOT com


Cell:

Country: Kenya


Occupation: Scientist and driver


What you would do if there was bird flu? And tell me, how you would educate
the people about the facts on bird flu preparedness.

If there is bird flu pandemic, I must be ready to protect and give support to
the community around me. The germ causing the bird flu is very dangerous to
both birds and other living creatures. It is known to be living in wild
birds, especially water birds like ducks, without causing disease……..But at
times when these birds come into contact with these domestic birds, such as
chicken they transmit it to them. Unlike in the wild birds, the germ causes
disease in the domestic birds, and they get very sick and most of them die.
Almost all the domestic birds that get sick die.

So there must be reasons for me to be responsible. Just about and during
winter, most of the wild birds from Europe and Asia fly or migrate to Africa
to escape the cold winter there. The birds arrive here between September and
December each year. These are the same months our chickens die of New castle
and other poultry diseases.

Most of these birds fly on to southern Africa but some of them land and stay
here for the entire period. The birds fly back between March and April. We
need to worry because some of the birds have already passed through here; and
have come into contact with our wild birds, or may do so in the course of
their stay here. Our wild birds and the visiting birds that stay on are
likely to come into contact with our domestic birds, considering that we keep
most of our domestic birds like chicken, out doors without any form of fencing
or without restriction –free range.

The journey to south is very long, and some of the birds are reported dying
on the way. Some of those birds that remain in Kenya may die during their
stay here. There are cases of human getting infected from coming into contact
with infected birds this means I am not spared even, I must find ways to
protect myself and others, in the countries where the disease is currently
occurring some of the people infected have died. There is great need to train
the community on preparedness on the possible attack.



Would you leave the pandemic to continue?

People must be prepared always as the pandemic will not spare anybody poor or
rich. We must come up in arms to do something to help where applicable. Tell
the people the truth about bird flu not just announcing in media that we are
safe…. but doing nothing, everybody is affected and there is no need to keep
cool and wait.




If you leave, get sick, with pandemic, who could replace you?

I cannot say that I am serious in arms, that, I’m ready to protect myself
from bird no!!! Anybody can die and there must be some linkage left behind to
support or there must be good governance from to me to the other people or
younger generation to help them protect or give to others coming behind us.

I mean I must give ground work to the younger people. This means they must be
trained for being prepared but death will one day come and life protection
must also continue.





What are their plans in the event of any kind of emergency (disaster)?

I plan to make the people have the following for their own protection and
this can be done I phases.

Phase one.

Community mobilization and awareness through seminars and workshops, making
the community aware of the prevailing results of the pandemic.

Phase Two.

Training community mobilizers on bird flu and getting some key contact people
for the great activity in preparation. Here we can have materials for training
and other kits including brochures, posters, Plastic bags, Masks and dust
coats.

Phase Three.

International network and exchange for sharing the out come. Evaluate the
outcome and continues monitoring.



Your comments and answers will give us permission to share with others
online.

Threads

Pamela McLean leads our Minciu Sodas working group Learning From Each Other.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/learningfromeachother/   She just came back
from Nigeria.  I share our chat.  Andrius Kulikauskas, http://www.ms.lt
--------------------------------------------


Andrius:             Hi Pamela, How are you?  How was your trip?  Hello from
Jerusalem.
Pamela:         hi
… I'm fine
… and you?
Andrius:             I'm fine, I'm happy
Pamela:         I've been trying to catch up with all the emails....
Andrius:             It's probably more important to write than to read!
Pamela:         I liek that you're happy :-)
… I have written a reort for BA who gave me the flight - I will send it to
LFEO
Andrius:             I'm just wondering if you might write about your
direction, what you care about, what's on your mind.
… Yes, great
Pamela:         Thank you
… I need to give consideration to that now I have coem back...
… Writign to you would be very helpful
Andrius:             yes, please!
… and then we can organize around you
Pamela:         I am a bit concerned about your expectataion of me regardin
gteh food story.
Andrius:             yes?
… No expectations
Pamela:         thsi is because I cannot make promises on behalf of other
people - i.e. my nigerian (or other) contacts
Andrius:             just an opportunity
… what do you mean?
Pamela:         The only thing I really have of value is my credibilty..
Andrius:             yes
… and your credibility allows us to connect and then it's up to us
Pamela:         Regardign Nigereai is tis impossible to say "we will" - I
only ever say "we hope to.." etc...
Andrius:             I understand
… but we take risks, and I think in Samwel Kongere's case in Kenya it has
gone well
… likewise that take risks with us
… It's also about your goals
… if you think it would build momentum for you if one of our MyFoodStory
teams centered around your group, that's great
… but if not, then better not
Pamela:         but Samwel is a direct contact ..
Andrius:             It's a resource that we have - and a commitment that I
have
… yes, so it would be good to make direct contacts in Nigeria that you might
recommend
Pamela:         I have one person now that I woudl like to approach ref teh
food story
Andrius:             yes?
Pamela:         eh is teh mamger fo teh AA InofCentre.
… andrisu - I have a problem - David is online now form Kenya... and I agreed
earlier in the week I woudl be here for him
Andrius:             ok may I share our chat?
… and who is the person at the AA InfoCentre?
Pamela:         oops - the commetns are fine but not the typos.. ;-)
Andrius:             ok
… it's authenticity!
Pamela:         Hmm
Andrius:             all for now?
Pamela:         I need to concentrate on Davdi for the nxt hour
… Davdi M - from Kenya..
Andrius:             ok
… take care
Pamela:         and you
… I look forward to proper chat soon

Andrius - following our chat - here is the report I prepared for BA  -
but it is rather long for an email:
Pam

*Highlights of Visit to Nigeria: 19th October to 2nd November 2006*

The visit began with a meeting with Bode Omokaro, Programme Coordinator
of DIFN (Development Impact For Nigeria, UK Charity Commisssion No
1091028). It was my first meeting with Bode, my previous contacts have
been with Yomi Oloka the UK coordinator of DIFN. Together Bode and I
gave a presentation to the head teachers from ten schools in the Lagos
area. The meeting was opened by the local government chairman. The
“Teachers Talking About ICT” programme was explained. The head teachers
were interested in making the training available for their staff and the
local government chairman expressed support. Subsequently I gave Bode
initial training as a TT presenter and presented him with course
materials so that he can prepare to implement the programme. He will get
ongoing support online.

Next I met with the OCDN chairman, Chief Gbade Adejumo, and the OCDN
secretary, Chief Michael Mojoyinola, in Ibadan – people I have known
well for many years. OCDN is the Oke-Ogun Community Development Network,
and was responsible for the successful art competition for “A Ray of
Hope” in Oke-Ogun earlier this year. I showed the chiefs the sports and
educational equipment I had brought and we completed detailed planning
for the trip.

On Monday October 23rd I travelled with Chief Adejumo to Ago-Are. There
I stayed at the home of Pastor David, manager of the OCDN InfoCentre in
Ago-Are, for a week. During that time we met with the chairman and the
ex-chairman of the Community Association to discuss the support that
outsiders can give to the Information Centre. I also collected
information, for the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), regarding an
agricultural distance learning programme, which had been delivered
though the InfoCentre. We hope this may lead to closer future links with
COL.

I was asked by Pastor David to help raise the profile of the InfoCentre
with local schools. I made visits to several secondary schools and
suggested starting a schools club at the InfoCentre, which could include
linking up with schools overseas. The first meeting was held on Thursday
26th October. Despite very short notice, the participants were greeted
with messages through the Internet, from London (Charity for African
Welfare and Development) and Northern Ireland (Done McBurney, Youth
Ambassador for the Culture of Peace) and the children of Largymore
Primary School. . Following the greetings from Largymore P.S. the
participants visited the school website, and prepared email replies.

The schools club was attended by one hundred and twenty two people, at
least six of whom were teachers. The teachers were also interested in
"TT" (the "Teachers Talking About ICT" programme). We agreed to set up a
separate teachers club, which would be a first step to including the
teachers, through the TT-Online part of the TT programme.

Saturday was a social day. The Oba (local hereditary ruler) was
celebrating thirty years as ruler of the town and surrounding area. The
Baale Agbe (chief of the farmers) decided I should accompany him to the
celebration - suitably dressed, according to local tradition. He
provided me with a tailored outfit - matching his own and that of other
guests, made of material specially designed for the occasion, plus a
splendid head-dress. This "regalia" drew favorable comments over the
public address system from the master of ceremonies.

On Sunday the sports and educational resources were presented.

On Monday I travelled to Okeho with Mrs Victoria Adetona. We made the
presentation at a ceremony attended by the Oba of Okeho. I was also
shown the computers that have been installed by OCDN in a room of the
town hall and we discussed the possibility of future TT programmes
there. I was also updated on the local micro-credit scheme, and visited
its office. There I was shown a laptop (which is used for administration
and IT training) which was awarded through a world bank scheme,. This
was particularly gratifying for me as I had sent the details of the
scheme to Chief Adejumo a couple of years ago and he had forwarded them
to Mrs Adetola, who had then applied. Mrs Adetola also told me about her
work with the Oyo State "National Council of Women's Societies" (NCWS) a
women's empowerment group. We agreed that if she would send me reports
of her women's work and micro-credit work then I would raise the
visibility of both these initiatives on the Internet.

My next visit was on Tuesday with Chief Mojoyinola, to Iseyin, where the
final presentations were made. I was also shown the two OCDN computers
in Iseyin, whicj have been installed in a partitioned off area at the
end of the library, under the supervision of an education committee.
Chief Mojoyinola said the library had been a valuable resource when he
was a young man, but the books are now badly out of date (the most
recent gift of books included science books published in 1969.) We
discussed the possibility of printing up- to-date resources through the
computers, and thus helping to update the library. Two freely copyable
CDs of ICT training materials were given to the centre to start this
initiative. However, a better printer will be needed if such printing
out is to be done. There is a good quality photocopier which would
enable readers to make affordable copies of sections of the books.

On returning to Ibadan on Wednesday I attended a meeting with Professor
Francis Egbokhare, director of the Distance Learning Centre at Ibadan
University, to discuss his plans for collaborating with OCDN, and with
others in our network. This was another encouraging example of positive
results coming years after initial efforts. I was shown a thick file of
correspondence which had lead to the Wednesday meeting – it began with a
letter I had written back in 2000, in support of the founder of what is
now OCDN, suggestion collaboration with Ibadan University. The
university is now planning to set up a new distance learning initiative
for rural areas, building on our initial work in Ago-Are.

The trip was extremely useful for mutual updating and future planning
for continuing to work together. The resources were well received. The
face-to-face meetings gave encouragement and new direction to the
projects on ground, and enabled various new links to be established. I
will be following these up and strengthening them in the coming months
now that I am back with my home computer - with the easy access to the
Internet and the reliable electricity supply that makes my access to
information and communication systems so simple compared to the
challenges faced by my friends and other contacts in Nigeria. On behalf
of those friends and contacts, and the people they aim to serve, and
myself, I thank BA for making the trip to Nigeria possible.

Andrius - and everyone.

The newsletter that I've copied below gives more information about our
activities. It's very sketchy because I don't have anyone to write it at
present - but I needed to put something out to let people know we are
still active - and in need of help  ;-) I wrote it after I came home.
To subscribe to the Newsletter please go to
http://lists.cawdnet.kabissa.org/mailman/listinfo/cawdnet-news
(The introductory information is a little out of date there - updating
various bits of information that we have on the Internet is another of
those jobs crying out to be done.)

Anyhow - the newsletter itself is well up to date:

####################

Newsletter 40 from Cawdnet : Notes from Pamela McLean

Introduction - and invitation to potential guest editors.

Welcome to the latest update from Cawdnet - working in
Nigeria and the UK to make the most of digital technology.
The format this time is rather different - no full
stories, just a series of notes so you get a flavour of
our current and recent activities. Jon is not able to
return to Cawdnet yet to continue editing our Newsletter -
so I am looking hopefully for some guest editors to fill
the gap. If anyone would like to try their hand at an
issue or two of our Newsletter (maybe more) please let me
(pam@...), or Lorraine Duff, lorraine@...) know.
We'll provide the information for the editor to knock into
shape.

Content - some of the stories waiting to be covered:
1.  Teachers Talking
2.  Cawdnet Campus
3.  Barefoot Power
4.  Health Workers Special Interest Group
5.  Peoples University
6.  Global Learn Day
7.  Meet Andrius Kulikauskas
8.  IICD Trainers Workshop
9.  Ago-Are InfoCentre
10. News from Victoria Adetona in Okeho
11. Iseyin
12. David Mutua
13. Ibadan University
14. Football Tournament
15. Summary

##########

1.  Teachers Talking (TT)
Progress in various directions.  Interest from trainers
elsewhere, in Nigeria and other African countries.
On 6th July 2006 there was a joint Cawdnet - Trainerspod
Elluminate Webinar about Teachers Talking.
On 10th October 2006 there was a joint ICT4Development
presentation with Tim Neumann of London Institute of
Education to London University Knowledge Lab.
New collaboration with DIFN (Development Impact For
Nigeria) in Lagos, where Bode Omokaro is in discussion
with ten local schools about presenting TT. Given the lack
of computers at his training centre he plans to start with
the 'No-Computer Computer Course' (NC3).  If anyone can
help with the provision of one or more laptops for the
training then Bode would also include the 'Hands-on
Computers' practical sessions.

##########

2.  Cawdnet Campus
This is our new "virtual campus" on the Internet.  There
is much going on behind the scenes.  Expect to see
evidence there of activity from various Special Interest
Groups (SIGs)as time goes by.

##########

3.  Barefoot Power
This is a domestic solar project involving collaboration
with Stewart Craine of Barefoot Power and Fantsuam Foundation.

##########

4.  Health Workers Special Interest Group
A warm welcome to Professor Dick Heller who is leading
this new group at Cawdnet Campus

##########

5.  People's University
This is an online discussion group with innovative ideas
about distance education.  The present focus is on health
- the discussions opened on Monday 31st October 2006.

##########

6.  Global Learn Day 10
This is an annual event, this year (8th October) there was
input from Cawdnet - http://bfranklin.edu/gld/

##########

7.  Meet Andrius Kulikauskas
Andrius and Pam met earlier this year.  His network Minciu
Sodas laboratory http://www.ms.lt/ and Cawdnet are coming
together through a yahoo group called "Learning From Each
Other".

##########

8.  IICD Trainers Workshop
In July (18th - 22nd) 2006 Pam attended this workshop in
Zambia in her role as a trainer for Fantsuam Foundation.

##########

9.  Ago-Are InfoCentre
Lots to update people about, including the COL/IITA/OCDN
project - and the launch of schools and teachers online clubs.

##########

10. News from Victoria Adetona in Okeho
Cawdnet helped Victoria's micro-credit organisation Rural
People Development Initiative (previously known as RUSEL)
to get a laptop from the World Bank - which also helped
youth in Okeho to get computer training.
Victoria also recently became vice president of the Okeho
chapter of the Nigerian NCWS - National Council of Women's
Societies - a women's empowerment group.

##########

11. Iseyin
Presentation of two CD-ROMS marks the start of what we
hope will become the Iseyin digital-library/book-printing
project - but a better printer will be needed if this is
to become a reality.

##########

12. David Mutua
Update from David Mutua in Kenya

##########

13. Ibadan University
New links between Ibadan University Department of Distance
Learning and the Ago-Are InfoCentre.

##########

14. Football Tournament
Presentation of trophies and team vests in Ago-Are, Iseyin
and Okeho.

##########

15. Summary
The Newsletter is in need of guest editors - anyone
interested in exploring what would be involved please
contact pam@... or lorraine@.... Meanwhile this
edition gives some key points of what is going on.

##########

This newsletter is being sent to you because according to
our records you have expressed an interest in our work and
consented to receive these emails.

CAWD is a UK Registered Charity (number 1104228).

______________________________________________
CAWDNET-News mailing list
CAWDNET-News@...
http://lists.cawdnet.kabissa.org/mailman/listinfo/cawdnet-news

Andrius said to me: I'm just wondering if you might write about your
direction, what you care about, what's on your mind.


I need that invitation. I need to gather my thoughts. As usual when I
come home from Nigeria I feel a bit disorientated.- it is a kind of
reverse culture shock..  I  think I adapt more quickly to my situation
in Nigeria than I do to coming back home again - things like the lack of
water and electricity - the pressure of intrusions into "my personal
space", the bad roads and chaotic, anarchic traffic systems, living with
more natural rhythms - waking at cock-crow - rising around dawn, going
to bed fairly early (because the hurricane lamp or candles give little
light) etc. Then I leave my friends still struggling with those everyday
problems, and I come home to life as it is over here - flushing drinking
water down the toilet, hardly aware of dawn or dusk, switching on lights
as soon as it gets a  bit gloomy - and of course using the Internet as
effortlessly and I  turn on a tap. And there is no more of the endless
quizzing about how everyone slept, how everyone is in their health, how
everyone's family is and so on. All those greetings can get a bit much
- but I kind of miss them when they are gone.

So - I was asked about direction.. I often say that I more or less know
where I am trying to get to - but that getting there is rather like
tacking across the wind.- something which can look, to casual
spectators, like complete changes of direction, not purposeful progress.
Every time I come back from a "reality check" visit it's like the wind
and currents have changed and I have to get my bearings again and reset
the course.

So - I'll just touch on a few of the people and places and what I want
to help to happen next. I won't try to explain how and why - or how come
we are at this particular point. It  would be too complicated. I can
fill in such details later if anyone needs them in order to act.

Bode - helping him with TT. I need to keep in contact with him now, so
that he continues to develop his own positive  experience of being part
of an online community. He was very impressed when we were at the cyber
cafe together and I was able to introduce him to Lorraine for a chat,
and she was helping him to find web links that he needed. . Previously
he had only seen chat used by other people at the cyber cafe for
trivial purposes. usually involving a lot of lies and trying to impress
people. He was delighted to  discover it could be used usefully.

It would be good if we could present a TT course together - or at least
go over things in more detail together before he has a go on his own.
I'm trying to get all the resources that I gave him easily available at
Cawdnet Campus - with a view to sharing them with others too, and also
gradually improving them. At present they are just as I used them myself
when I was training teachers. I'd really like to do additional notes
that would make the resources more useful to other trainers who have not
been involved in their development.

Bode is only going to do the "No-Computer Computer Course" part of
Teachers Talking with his teachers at first, because he hasn't got any
computers at his office/training centre.. He's hoping I might be able to
get him a a second hand laptop from somewhere so he can also do some of
the Hands-On Computers practical work. As far as TT-Online goes,
anything he does of that will have to be at the cyber cafe.- so it is
only likely to be possible for the most enthusiastic, because of the cost.

I'm glad Bode and my OCDN friends are getting to know each other and are
interested in how they might work together. Chief Adejumo (chairman of
OCDN) has a long time concern with tackling corruption in local
government. He was particularly interested to hear about some training
that Bode is doing with various church groups, in the Lagos area, to
help people be more aware of how local government should work, and about
issues of accountability.

I'll write about other people and places later.

Pam

Dear Jonathan Schafler, Thank you for joining us at our GlobalVillages working
group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/globalvillages/   I share also with other
groups that are interested in learning and in the interface that I am
building http://www.myfoodstory.info for collecting stories, which I will try
to relate to your project http://www.givethought.com   I also share with Kevin
Jones and David Alan Boyd of http://www.xigi.net which we want to partner with
to connect our stories with their knowledge system.

Jonathan, your powerpoint presentation includes many thoughtful insights as
to how a wiki-based system for informal learning could work.  This is a very
ambitious project that could unfold in a variety of ways, and various people
such as Pamela McLean of Learning From Each Other and Teachers Talking have
thought through different angles.  Your project will need a team of
believers, a sensitivity to realities, a framework for organizing knowledge,
and an online infrastructure.  This is the help that we are providing to
jumpstart http://www.myfoodstory.com for Greg Wolff of UnaMesa Association.
Indeed, the content that we are organizing - personal stories and
encyclopedic articles that help us appreciate our world's food supply chain -
might make a great start for GiveThought.  One idea is that we supply you with
content for your site and that you share your ideas how we might all make best
use of it.  If you work openly through our lab, then you could build momentum
while you gather interest from investors, and we would be available for paid
work as that arises.  I think this would be good for both of our projects.
We can also provide free hosting for your project if you are generating
materials in the Public Domain, which is to say, copyright-free for all to
use in their best judgement.  Overall, our lab is taking steps towards
creating an informal learning system for self-learners and your vision is
very helpful.

Today I made good progress in developing our interface
http://www.myfoodstory.info for collecting and presenting "food stories".  We
have 25 sample records which we can sort by "storyteller" and by "tag".  I
realized the kind of data that seems natural to collect.  It is the personal
accounts that come up in websites, blog posts and news stories.  Often these
are personal stories that are written down for us by a blogger, reporter or
other writer.  They may include direct quotes or be written in the third
person.

My thought is that these are then natural type of "stories" for us to collect
at first.  They are fantastically informative as they present a human face for
the facts and ideas.  But for us they are also a way to reach out to the
"original storyteller", the person who is sharing their perspective from
their life.  If we want to reach out to such people using a "division of
labor", and if we want to "work openly", then we have almost no choice but to
record such snippets so that we could make an effort to reach out to these
"storytellers" or have them find us.  Immediately, we face issues such as
copyright, privacy and recognition of authors.  I feel comfortable for the
following reasons:
- Regarding any particular item, we are arguably within the "fair use" by
which bloggers, taggers and search engines make use of such excerpts.
- We can make use of small excerpts - several sentences - as we need just
enough to identify why the person is interesting for My Food Story.
- We don't need many excerpts about one person, generally one is enough, and
then we can reach out and try to contact them.
- We don't need to store their contact or personal information, but rather
simply a url where we can find that.
- We are only showing the post temporarily until we can find the person and
ask for their permission, and learn whether they'd like to participate in any
way, or not at all.
- We make clear that we do not yet have permission, but are seeking it, and
that the material is copyright.
- We link each such item to a page where we ask the storyteller to reach out
to us and let us know if we may please share their stories or not.
- We are attributing the person and any authors by linking to the story and
thus steering traffic to them.
- We are generally using just an excerpt, not the whole article.
- This is new and important: We are sharing the story of the "storyteller",
which is to say, the person who is telling about their life and their
perspective, who may often not be the writer of the story.  My point is that,
morally, the storyteller's rights trump those of the reporter or author.  How
can a journalist take a person's words verbatim, or paraphrase them - a
derived work - and claim that they have all rights regarding them?  No, I
believe that the original storyteller clearly has more fundamental rights and
we can focus on their primacy and reaching them and learning if they would
like to have a relationship with us or not.
- We are also reaching out to the journalists, bloggers, etc. who in these
cases I refer to as "editors" for the storyteller.  Yet as editors they are
playing the same important and difficult role as we ourselves are.  So our
interest is to include and reward them as specialists who might contribute to
encyclopedic articles and who might appreciate work as consultants for
businesses.
- If the editors do not want us using their work, then as we learn this -
either from them finding us first, or us reaching out to them - we note this
and promptly delete or paraphrase the excerpts, leaving the urls and tags as
our own work.

This is just a directory for us to be aware of the great variety of people
out there, and to organize such information freely using tags.  I have
decided that it's best just to allow for all manner of tags and not to try to
group them as to location, job title, values, foods, technologies, etc.
However, as we see what kinds of tags are useful, we can indeed categorize
the tags as to which are locations, job titles, etc. and have navigation
accordingly.  We can also "clean" the tags so that they are more orderly.  We
just don't need to enforce this when we add or edit an item.

As we reach out to the people we're learning about, then we can ask how they
might participate.  They might simply agree that we collect their snippets.
But they also might directly give us their stories, in the Public Domain
except as noted.  These would be full length stories or interviews or answers
to questionnaires.  And they might have us be their registry so that others
may present this material and we might registered any "official" presenters
and their relationships.

I'm happy that the possiblilities are clarifying themselves. The current page
http://www.myfoodstory.info allows us to focus on excerpts for a storyteller
or a tag.  I am thinking of splitting the screen so that the right hand side
can display a related wiki article that we can create about that person or
that tag.

The technology may seem simple and usual, and it is.  But what I'm finding is
that the particular approach - what kind of information are we collecting and
presenting - gives shape to the information, and to our learning.  Here it is
the focus on a person who we treat as a storyteller because we want to hear
what they have to say about their life, and we recognize all of the writers
and recorders simply as editors.  And we're focusing on their personal story,
their subjective story, rather than objective, faceless information.  I'm glad
that I'm able to work on our own prototype because I think without that
liberty it would be hard to figure out what we actually want to collect.

A full blown learning system will include other kinds of "learning objects"
such as:
- a FAQ approach, as you suggest, organizing information in terms of
questions and answers
- "encyclopedias" of mathematical facts - all manner of sizes along various
dimensions - that help us size up quantities, and collections of related real
life word problems
- exercises
- streams of correspondence, as we have
I'll have to think of more! with your help.

Andrius

Andrius Kulikauskas
Minciu Sodas
http://www.ms.lt
ms@...
+370 (699) 30003
Jerusalem




-----------------------------------------------------------

I am unsure how the structures of the Minciu Sodas lab are
specifically applicable to the GiveThought project, but would love to
hear.  In the meantime, to anyone interested in working on
GiveThought.com, here are what I perceive to be the most important
near term tasks:

1.  Concept feedback and revision.  Require in-depth written feedback
about the PowerPoint presentation including visual presentation and
content.  Then, a series of updates to the presentation.

2.  Near term web needs.  I am not a web designer or graphic artist
and the website reflects that.  I am willing to pay for the cost of
hosting the GiveThought website without a godaddy.com banner if a
professional-looking page is developed.  Ideally, this page should
offer a forum or wiki function to promote discussion and development
of the idea.

3. Dissemination.  After the presentation has been revised in a small
group,there is a need to disseminate the GT idea to more people for
further discussion and optimization.

4.  Recruitment.  As a starting point, there is a need to recruit for the
above two tasks.  In the future, recruitment for development of a
functioning version of the GiveThought website as well as all related
positions will be necessary.

Please contact me at jonathan.schafler@... with questions.

Jonathan


--- In globalvillages@yahoogroups.com, <ms@...> wrote:

> > Jonathan, Thank you for your reply!  I spoke today with Franz
> > Nahrada of our
> > Global Villages working group
> > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/globalvillages/
> > and he saw your Power Point presentation
> > and encourages you to look at
> > existing structures such as our Minciu Sodas lab.
> > He invites you to join us.

> > I also invite you to
> > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/learningfromeachother/ led
> > by Pamela McLean who just returned from Nigeria (any news Pam?)
> > Please join
> > us at either or both groups and let's discuss further!
> > your work is very
> > relevant. I also inform our groups
> > the good news that we got EU approval for
> > a "utopias" project in which we will get
> > co-funding for video bridges
> > technology in Lithuania, one unit for our Atzalynas center and a
mobile unit.
> >  Andrius, http://www.ms.lt
> > ------------------------


Andrius,

Thank you kindly for your note.  Although I have not had a chance to review
your
websites in great detail, I greatly respect your efforts to create
collaborative
wiki-based learning projects.

In my view, there is a deep need for a wiki-based website with objective and
subjective information organized in a curriculum format such as one
encounters
at a university.  Information on the Internet tends to lack in the coherence
and focus of educational courses.

Despite having a full map of how I envision the GiveThought website
appearing
aesthetically and functioning, I do not have sufficient programming
expertise
at my disposal to make it a reality.  Do you know of anyone who would be
willing to discuss involvement in this worthy social entrepreneurial
venture?

I look forward to hearing back from you.

Best regards,
Jonathan Schafler

Jonathan.Schafler@...



Quoting ms@...:

> > Dear Jonathan Schafler,
> > I'm glad to learn from Graham Douglas of your work as a social
entrepreneur
> > to create wiki-based educational materials.
> > We have been working on similar projects at our Minciu Sodas laboratory
> > http://www.ms.lt   I share with our working groups for "learning from
each
> > other" http://groups.yahoo.com/group/learningfromeachother/ and "global
> > villages" http://groups.yahoo.com/group/globalvillages/  Please also
note
our
> > work on MyFoodStory http://www.myfoodstory.com  I invite you to join us!
> > Andrius Kulikauskas, http://www.ms.lt
> > -------------------------------------
> > GiveThought.com (GT) is a wiki-based social entrepreneurship concept.
GT
> > will gather wiki lesson contributions to form coherent customizable
learning
> > curricula to be offered for free around the world to
> >
> > +Those who are unable to access formal education.
> > +Those who wish to complement their formal educations
> > +Those who wish to access information about subjective topics from an
> > organized and coherent source.
> >
> > If you are interested in learning about or participating in the
development
> > of project GT, please contact founder Jonathan Schafler at:
> >
> > jms53@...
> >
> > Note: GiveThought.com is a social entrepreneurial venture.  The
originator
of
> > the concept will try to find a role for anyone interested in
participating
in
> > its development but does not grant the right to use, sell or develop the
> > concept without express written consent from the owner of
GiveThought.com.
> > --------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Andrius,
> >
> > Jonathan Schafler is developing a wiki based social entrepreneurship
website
> > concept and is seeking feedback and expressions of interest at
> > JSchafler@... . He is hosting the explanatory PPT presentation
> > temporarily at: http://www.givethought.com
> >
> > Kind regards,
> > Graham Douglas
> >
> > FOUNDER,
> > INTEGRATIVE FEDERATION tm
> > Achieving Sustainable Development
> > 4 Cintra Street, Ipswich, Australia 4305
> > 61 7 3282 9762; Skype: integrative
> > integrative@...
> > www.integrative-thinking.com

Kevin, How are you?

I thought of you and came across your letter
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencylocalcurrency/message/43
where you write more about the International Disaster Reduction Conference
where you presented your Birdshot initiative for emergency local currency.  I
share your letter here at Cyfranogi http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cyfranogi/

Elsewhere in our lab, regarding pandemic flu, I've been thinking that for our
current work http://www.myfoodstory.com we might have a team with Pamela
McLean and/or Janet Feldman and colleagues in Africa on the connection
between poultry, "learning from each other", and interfaces that are suitable
for people working with very different bandwidth.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/learningfromeachother/  Perhaps we can find a
way to connect?

Greetings from Jerusalem.
Andrius Kulikauskas, ms@..., http://www.ms.lt
-------------------------------------------------

As planned, I attended the International Disaster Reduction Conference
in Davos, Switzerland, from August 27 through September 1,
representing the Birdshot initiative. The expenses were paid by me
personally, although I still have some hope of recovering these from
charitable funders.

The Conference provided an excellent means of networking with
individuals and organizations involved in the international
disaster-relief community, and I'm very happy to report that it was
received with enthusiasm. During the coming weeks and months I'll be
following-up on the contacts I initiated there. For example, the
Birdshot initiative is now a part of the Global Disaster Information
Network (GDIN), one of the Conference sponsors, because of our
involvement in the event and my contact with GDIN's director, and I
expect similar results with other major international organizations.

There was nothing else presented at the conference regarding local
currency systems, and apparently this was an introduction to the power
of this approach for that community. Interestingly, there was also
very little else presented there addressing the threat of pandemic,
certainly because the 20th Century model of disaster-relief (dig-out,
rebuild) is nearly powerless against it. However, the international
community is evolving an understanding that a metasystems approach,
which provides redundancy in accessing essential resources, is
promising, and so the local-currency solution, which provides
redundancy of the marketplace itself, is likely to be well received
over the coming years.

Below is a copy of some comments I posted recently at a Minciu Sodas
website (Cyfranogi), in reply to a request from its director, Andrius
Kulikauskas. I'll expand this update after I have a decision from the
Gate's Foundation about the Letter of Inquiry submitted July 27. As
you'll see if you compare my comments above and below, my
understanding of how to approach advancing this work internationally
is evolving as I continue to process my experience in Switzerland,
and, similarly, I expect Gates' response to impact my thinking
significantly.

Today is the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attack on the US.
Five years ago, the world seemed to be beginning to truly understand
that terrorism cannot be defeated through force of arms, but crises
often bring a step backward. The H5N1 pandemic may be an exception to
that rule because it will certainly advance the implementation of
local currency systems and so perhaps help to bring the world a step
closer to an end to hunger. If Birdshot serves as a link between the
crisis community and the community currency movement, then perhaps it
will yet be a part of that solution.

Kevin


Posted to Cyfranogi Sept 7:

I took the Birdshot initiative (www.birdshot. cc) that
began at Cyfranogi to the UN sponsored International
Disaster Reduction Conference in Switzerland last
week, where I offered it as a poster presentation and
took advantage of many good opportunities to connect
with people working in alternative economics and
addressing the problem of hunger (my main interest).
My overall impression is that the international
disaster-response community (UN, Red Cross, etc) is
deeply interested in evolving a proactive strategy.
The 20th century global model has been to dig-out,
rebuild infrastructure, and bring in big business, and
that has only perpetuated the poverty-disaster cycle
because it leaves the "improved area" one calamity
away from again being a long-term client of relief.
But that model is still very attractive - with its
huge relief packages bringing power and wealth to
major players - and so has been hard to move passed.
The new direction offered so far (through the 2005
Kyobi conference, for example) has been to stress
education, especially an ideal of teaching people how
to prepare for and respond to disaster. IMHO this
proceeds from the simple fact that the conversation is
dominated by academics, but it doesn't offer much real
hope. As one attendee from a major university said to
me, "You can't eat knowledge." Well, you can't eat
money either, but the same woman immediately
appreciated the power and promise of the local
currency model, as did the majority of those with whom
I spoke. I don't need to tell you the arguments.

The UN just finished a decade of effort to advance
microenterprise development, and so the attendees were
educated about the ability to change people's lives
with a few dollars. Studies show that local currency
systems are a more effective tool than micro-credit
for raising populations out of poverty, and STROhalm
foundation, which is sponsoring the Birdshot
initiative, has successful pilot projects combining
micro-credit and local currency, so most folks found
the argument compelling.

Of course, I could reach relatively few of those
attending, but it was a good start and because of
Birdshot's inclusion in that conference the door is
open to nurture that seed. Moreover, even as the 20th
Century disaster model has been ineffective in
reducing poverty, so it is also ineffective against
the threat of pandemic, and so not only is the
disaster-response community able to comprehend
alternative economic models but it is also anxious to
hear strategies to address the bird flu threat. The
other bird flu strategy presented at the conference
suggested a metasystem approach to accomplish more
resilient infrastructure. Only Birdshot addressed the
question, "What if infrastructure fails?" Still, on
the whole, the UN and other organizations are going to
be more receptive to local currency as a tool against
chronic poverty rather than as a tool against acute
crises, and this is just a matter of
compartmentalization, with disaster continuing to be
dominated by the concept of response, while the
problem of poverty is now open to proactive
strategies. The meeting point is that endemic poverty
is now understood as the fundamental problem because
it is the poor who are disproportionately effected.
Thus, local currency systems could quickly become a
leading proactive disaster and poverty strategy,
finding a place along side micro-credit.

I hope that the leading voices in the community
currency movement will look for opportunities to make
inroads with these international organizations.

Probaly I should put this on the FoodStories link- but if I don't just
post it here quickly now (at a link I know) it will probably never get
posted at all.

  IRIN's special report page on avian influenza
The page can be found at www.irinnews.org <http://www.irinnews.org>

Pam

Ref the info below - from IRIN -The page can be found at
www.irinnews.org <http://www.irinnews.org>

This is too good to miss. Is it possible to feed the IRIN reports  into
the Poultyr Food story section or link to them in some way - I imagine
this is what "RSS feeds" is for - but no idea about implementing - and
precious little time to learn/apply any new, remotely "techie", stuff at
present.....

Pam

"IRIN is re-launching its avian influenza special report page on 20
November, with the aim of providing the latest information to help the
humanitarian community better understand and respond to the possibility
of a pandemic evolving in poultry - and in humans.....Over the next
weeks, IRIN will continue to produce weekly news and analysis on avian
influenza, focusing on compensation policies (and implementation of
these policies) for poultry farmers in countries most at risk,
migration/contamination routes, which in the case of a pandemic would
constitute the main threat; and communication strategies, as well as
materials used to inform and sensitise populations to the risks involved
and best prevention methods."

This is an email I recently contributed to the IIEP list
-iiep-oer-opencontent@... where Open Content is under
discussion - including the mapping of OERs. The email may interest you
if you are an OER  enthusiast or if you are interested in Teachers
Talking..

Pam

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Web 2.0 has been mentioned. As web 2.0 enables small players to get
involved I will come in here to mention a small,  but growing, short ICT
training programme for teachers. Given most of the OERs to be mapped are
from large institutions, some of the features I describe may challenge
the dimensions of the OER mapping exercise ;-) Our interpretation of
Distance Learning is a little unconventional  too, and the various
stages in our delivery system are unusual. There is no attempt at
accreditation at present - there is simply a certificate of attendance.

The course started as a F2F course, but gradually it is developing  into
distance education with freely available resources that people can adapt
to their own needs. Its design and direction is being driven by demand
and local realities. The initial demand came when teachers in rural
areas (with no electricity or computers in their schools) were required
to start teaching ICT. I was asked to provide the teachers with some
training - part of the training was what I subsequently called "NC3"  -
the No- Computer Computer Course.

The first time I delivered the course I had three posters as visual
aids. They were attractive full colour A1 laminated posters.When we did
practical work during the course (with the participants planning lessons
and team-teaching real classes of children)  some of the teams asked to
borrow the posters.  But the posters cost around £11 each - far too
expensive for the participants to consider buying any to use in their
own schools after the course. I decided that next time I presented the
course I must do it without the posters.  I decided it would only be
fair if I used visual aids that were A4 in size and monochrome - because
then if the teachers wanted to use them back in their classrooms they
could photocopy them.

I started to experiment with the idea of presenting the course as a
series of self explanatory A4 "posters" and fact sheets. I didn't have
the time or money to prepare all of the NC3 course in that way - but I
wanted to do enough for "proof of concept"  (I was limited because I had
to pay someone to draw the posters for me, and the project is not part
of my "day job". It is a "self-funded hobby" - or "obsession" -
depending on your view point. Personally I blame the UK Open University
for getting me into this ;-).  The OU started my interest in computers
and distance learning many years ago when I studied for an OU degree. It
also gave me the confidence to become a self-directed student. In all of
this I see myself simply as a compulsive student of ICT4Ed doing
independent practical research - able to do so because  even outsiders
can study now, as long as we're not looking for accreditation.)

I was satisfied with my experiment with the A4 resources. The cost was
reasonable 4 Naira if you used the smudgy photocopier, 5 Naira if you
chose the better quality one. The exchange rate was around 240 Naira to
one UK pound. The whole thing was far more realistic than using glossy
posters.  I also had a couple of opportunities to see if the resources
were robust enough to be used by novices to teach others - and I was
greatly encouraged by what I saw. The participants I observed were more
accurate and confident when they passed on knowledge using the A4
resources than when we had used the others posters. In fact I reckoned
that if I continued with the same approach for all of the NC3 course,
and created an effective delivery system for the materials (via the
Internet to other ICT trainers)  then I could make myself redundant as a
F2F trainer. So that is the next challenge - to deliver TT materials
from home in the UK to other trainers.in Africa so they can run  the NC3
courses for teachers.

This email is already rather long - so I won.t go into detail about how
far I have got regarding the training the trainers distance learning
course. The main points  are as follows.  Someone has provided me with
Moodle so I am gradually putting the resources there. Again it is only
proof of concept at this stage, because of being a self-funded
experiment.  I  know a few other ICT trainers in rural Africa who have
asked me to make the materials available for them. I have been asked to
run some more NC3 courses and have decided that the next ones I do will
be for trainers not for teachers.  I will use those courses to work out
the details of what the trainers really need. I feel the content will
need another layer of explanation to help them maximise its use with the
teachers.

Also I need to check out  details of the practicalities of the delivery
system. Printouts of the materials are 30 Naira a sheet, plus the cost
of being at the cyber cafe. I have to make the whole thing as quick and
easy and supportive as possible for the trainers. I want at least some
of them  to "stay with me" after they have learnt how to deliver the
present version of the course so we can continue to develop it
together.  There are issues of local language too - several anecdotes
relating to relevant previous experiences with NC3 spring to mind - but
no space to share them here.

When the training system is well in place I want to share other freely
available course materials with key trainers and teachers via cyber
cafes, in an ongoing programme of professional development.

Sorry its a long post but I wanted you to get the full picture. Please
consider how people like us might fit in when you  plan your mapping
strategy.

Pam

Markus, That's great news that you would like to lead a team for
http://www.myfoodstory.com  Yes, please start up a new working group for
"meaningful inclusion", your deepest value, there are instructions (where?)
Also, please think of what related crop and technology you would like to
focus on.  And I look to you for help to reach out in some area in the world,
such as:
- Palestine - I will be there for three weeks and can build a team for you,
olives might be a natural crop
- German language community
- India - such as building on tea and community barter
http://www.justchangeindia.org
- Perhaps supporting Uwe Christian Plachetka's work with "knowledge
management" and maize as the Incas did
But please suggest as would most excite you, and build your own team in that
spirit, too.

Pamela, I'm excited that, as we spoke on Thursday, you'll lead a MyFoodStory
team on "learning from each other", poultry and "multi-bandwidth interfaces"
which we'll feature in December or January (but will continue regardless).
As we discussed, we'll look for the best ways of communicating with your team
in the Nigerian villages.  I like your idea of dedicating your money to
purchase camera phones.  We'll build web interfaces to help facilitate the
sharing of content.  Also, I will ask Algis Cibulskis to set up a chat
channel for us (ARSC A really simple chat) the best location might be
http://www.myfoodstory.com/chat/  Also, we'll pursue the bird flu and
pandemic flu angles as much as possible, and I ask Lucas Gonzalez Santa Cruz
for guidance.

Janet, we were curious how you might like to help on Pamela's team or perhaps
lead a separate team?  In particular, I am thinking of setting aside a
community currency drawing on our expected bonus.  I would like to set aside
$3000 of our possible bonus to reward our online community for helping.  For
example, we need to collect 1,800 directory entries and so we could award $1
each.  And then those who earn can use or pool as we did for the chocolate
project.  I'm also interested if we might nurture more overlap between
Janet's networks (strong in Kenya) and Pamela's networks (strong in Nigeria),
for example, working with Pastor David who has just moved from Nigeria to
Nairobi.  Janet, I look forward to your wishes when you find time.

Thank you all for your leadership!

Andrius

Andrius Kulikauskas
Minciu Sodas
http://www.ms.lt
ms@...
+370 (699) 30003
Jerusalem

Pamela, Thank you for introducing us to David Matua in Nairobi!  I share your
letter. (I also use BCC - blind carbon copy - to share a copy with David
without exposing his email address).  David, yes, I encourage you to join
Pamela's working group by sending a blank message to
learningfromeachother-subscribe@yahoogroups.com  You can always unsubscribe
similarly.  You need not read all the letters, but it is a way for us to be
together, and we're especially glad if you write, that is most important.
We're also exploring other channels - such as a chat channel - as Pamela is
recommending.

David, in organizing "independent thinkers", I ask us two questions:
- What is your deepest value in life, that includes all your other values?
- What is a question that you don't know the answer to, but intend to
answer?
These questions help us understand you, love you, support you, hold you
accountable, have you as our leader, grow with you.

I look forward to learning more about you!

Andrius

Andrius Kulikauskas
Minciu Sodas
http://www.ms.lt
ms@...
+370 (699) 30003
Jerusalem
------------------------------

David, Samwel and Andrius - I think you should know each other.

Andrius - I know that usually when I write to you you are free to share all
the contents of my emails. For a reason mentioned far below please do not
share David's contact details without his permission..

David - Sorry for such a long email ;-)

David - you are the "newcomer" Samwel and Andrius already work together..

Samwel - I am writing now because you say "...As I am on transit through
Nairobi.." and David is currently in Nairobi.

Samwel and Andrius - David and I have known each other for many years -
initially when he came to Nigeria to work on a community project that I was
involved with. He has recently returned home to Kenya and is working on a new
community project there. ( I am supporting him in whatever way I can.) I will
leave him to supply the details of what he is trying to do.

David - I will leave Samuel to introduce himself.-and to clarify if the
torrent spelling is "Samwel" as in his signature or "Samuel" as in his email
address ;-) You will get a flavour of his interests from the email below this
one. The Andrius he refer to is the same Andrius I have told you about. The
Janet is Janet Feldman - I have introduced you and Janet. The Food Stories
are something I intend to tell you about. The holistichelping@yahoogroups.com
is a group that Andrius set up for Janet, just as he set up
learningfromeachother@yahoogroups.com for me.

David - Andrius has various such groups - each centred on the interests of
someone he defines as an "independent thinker". He manages the groups and
their areas of overlap in various ways. Andrius encourages everyone to think
and write very openly, and to share their ideas. I have enthusiastically
mentioned Andrius to you several times in the past and tried to give you an
idea of who he is and what he is interested in. Perhaps this explanation will
help you to start to know some of his interests. As I see it, through his
groups, he is exploring various way that technology can help us to order and
share our ideas - and how people with similar interests can best "find" each
other. He explores ways to analyse what we are writing about so that similar
ideas surface and the "appropriate" people start to cluster together.. Of
course he has his own idea and interests too as an "independent thinker" -
but he is much better at explaining those than I am.

David - Andrius has suggested that I should encourage you and others I work
with at FF and OCDN etc to join one or more of his groups - but I am
concerned that the level of correspondence may be more than you would all
want though your mailboxes. I have been meaning to ask you about it.

Andrius - If you get to know David you may well decide that he is another
"independent thinker". However I can't comment on David's present and future
access to the Internet and his potential relationship with communities of
interest on the Internet.

Samwel and David - I hope you do manage to meet up soon - I believe you would
help and encourage each other and maybe find useful areas of practical
collaboration.

Pam

Pamela, Thank you for introducing us to David Matua in Nairobi! I share your
letter. (I also use BCC - blind carbon copy - to share a copy with David
without exposing his email address). David, yes, I encourage you to join
Pamela's working group by sending a blank message to
learningfromeachother-subscribe@yahoogroups.com You can always unsubscribe
similarly. You need not read all the letters, but it is a way for us to be
together, and we're especially glad if you write, that is most important.
We're also exploring other channels - such as a chat channel - as Pamela is
recommending.

David, in organizing "independent thinkers", I ask us two questions:
- What is your deepest value in life, that includes all your other values?
- What is a question that you don't know the answer to, but intend to
answer?
These questions help us understand you, love you, support you, hold you
accountable, have you as our leader, grow with you.

I look forward to learning more about you!

Andrius

Andrius Kulikauskas
Minciu Sodas
http://www.ms.lt
ms@...
+370 (699) 30003
Jerusalem
------------------------------

David, Samwel and Andrius - I think you should know each other.

Andrius - I know that usually when I write to you you are free to share all
the contents of my emails. For a reason mentioned far below please do not
share David's contact details without his permission..

David - Sorry for such a long email ;-)

David - you are the "newcomer" Samwel and Andrius already work together..

Samwel - I am writing now because you say "...As I am on transit through
Nairobi.." and David is currently in Nairobi.

Samwel and Andrius - David and I have known each other for many years -
initially when he came to Nigeria to work on a community project that I was
involved with. He has recently returned home to Kenya and is working on a new
community project there. ( I am supporting him in whatever way I can.) I will
leave him to supply the details of what he is trying to do.

David - I will leave Samuel to introduce himself.-and to clarify if the
torrent spelling is "Samwel" as in his signature or "Samuel" as in his email
address ;-) You will get a flavour of his interests from the email below this
one. The Andrius he refer to is the same Andrius I have told you about. The
Janet is Janet Feldman - I have introduced you and Janet. The Food Stories
are something I intend to tell you about. The holistichelping@yahoogroups.com
is a group that Andrius set up for Janet, just as he set up
learningfromeachother@yahoogroups.com for me.

David - Andrius has various such groups - each centred on the interests of
someone he defines as an "independent thinker". He manages the groups and
their areas of overlap in various ways. Andrius encourages everyone to think
and write very openly, and to share their ideas. I have enthusiastically
mentioned Andrius to you several times in the past and tried to give you an
idea of who he is and what he is interested in. Perhaps this explanation will
help you to start to know some of his interests. As I see it, through his
groups, he is exploring various way that technology can help us to order and
share our ideas - and how people with similar interests can best "find" each
other. He explores ways to analyse what we are writing about so that similar
ideas surface and the "appropriate" people start to cluster together.. Of
course he has his own idea and interests too as an "independent thinker" -
but he is much better at explaining those than I am.

David - Andrius has suggested that I should encourage you and others I work
with at FF and OCDN etc to join one or more of his groups - but I am
concerned that the level of correspondence may be more than you would all
want though your mailboxes. I have been meaning to ask you about it.

Andrius - If you get to know David you may well decide that he is another
"independent thinker". However I can't comment on David's present and future
access to the Internet and his potential relationship with communities of
interest on the Internet.

Samwel and David - I hope you do manage to meet up soon - I believe you would
help and encourage each other and maybe find useful areas of practical
collaboration.

Pam


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Hi Andrius and Samwel

First I need to clarify my introduction - as we have two Davids in
Cawdnet - and I think Andrius you are combining them into one ;-)

Pastor David is the present manager of the InfoCentre at Ago-Are - which
was originally set up by David Mutua when he was with VSO (Voluntary
Service Overseas) in Nigeria. Pastor David is Nigerian. David Mutua is
Kenyan. When you and I Skyped last week David Mutua was the David I had
been yahoo chatting with previously. (Pastor David dropped by  yesterday
for a yahoo chat.) It is Pastor David who needs help to take photos. I
think David M still has a camera, and  phone - but PD has neither..

It is David Mutua who much prefers chatting to sending emails. He finds,
during precious (and often interrupted) online time,  that  running
several simultaneous yahoo chats works better for him than waiting for
individual emails to slowly download.and be replied to. I try to fit
with what suits people best.

samuel kongere wrote:

> ... happy to inform you that I know David Mutua very well. He is
> kenyan and we met with him at the Africe source II event in Uganda.
> Meeting him is plesasure, he is talkative lively and understanding. I
> don't know whether he is going back to Nigeria or not.
>
Samwel

That is great news that you and David already know each other. I love
your description of him. How close are you two geographically? The
village where he is starting his work is not terribly far from Nairobi
-but. I'm not sure which direction.

You can expect to see him in Kenya for some time. I will leave him to
explain the situation ref staying in Kenya/returning to Nigeria.. He is
hoping to set up a new centre (then network of centres) in Kenya -
building on our previous experiences with Oke-Ogun Community Development
Network and Fantsuam Foundation.

(I am copying to David M)

Pam

Forgive cross posting - this brings you the latest about our Fantsuam
Foundation TT group
Pam

Subject:
NL 41 - Teachers Talking 2nd Anniversary Celebration
From:
lorraine <lorraine@...>
Date:
Sun, 19 Nov 2006 23:47:50 +0000

To:
cawdnet-news@...


Newsletter 41 - Teachers Talking 2nd Anniversary Celebration

Welcome to the latest update from Cawdnet - working in Nigeria and the
UK to make the most of digital technology for development.

Content
1.  Introduction
2.  Cawdnet Campus
3.  Newsletter, News Alerts and Newsboards
4.  Teachers Talking Anniversary Celebration
5.  Shopping on-line can help CAWD
6.  Summary

##########

1.  Introduction
This newsletter features our annual celebration of Teachers Talking -
when rural teachers in Nigeria gather to be online and chat across teh
digital divide with friends in the UK. It also demonstrates our new
approach to sharing news, which, for the first time, points you to
Cawdnet Campus.

##########

2.  Cawdnet Campus
Cawdnet Campus is our new "virtual meeting place" on the Internet. It
was mentioned briefly in Newsletter 40. Rather than explaining  what it
is, and how we hope it will work, we will simply start to use it to
support the Newsletter over the coming months. Gradually as it gets
increasingly up-and-running we hope you will appreciate its many
features and benefits. Techies may like to know that Cawdnet Campus runs
on Moodle. As with any new enterprise "teething troubles" are a distinct
possibility - so please be patient with us. Anyone with experience of
Moodle (or interest in it) is very welcome to come and join Pam
pam@... and Lorraine lorraine@... on their learning curve and
help to get Cawdnet information moved to Moodle.

##########

3.  Newsletter, News Alerts and Newsboards
We plan to experiment with News Alerts instead of our old style
newsletter.Those of you who subscribe to various online newsletters will
be aware of the news alerts style. Instead of a newsletter *covering*
stories in full it simply *offers* the full stories. It gives the
opening sentences of each story plus a link to where you can read more.
This makes it much easier for readers to quickly scan the contents and
choose what they want to read in detail. Thanks to Cawdnet Campus we can
now try this approach. Our story about the Teachers Talking Anniversary
Celebration is our first experiment at creating a news alert.

##########

4.  Teachers Talking Anniversary Celebration
Most teachers who attend the Teachers Talking training programme work in
rural schools well away from the Internet, so our annual on-line get
together is a real cause for celebration. The second annual Teachers
Talking anniversary celebration was held on Friday 17th November.
Florence Bukola Bale, who helped to present the TT course earlier this
year, arranged the anniversary celebration at Fantsuam Foundation (FF)
Community Learning Centre (CLC). It was judged a great success by those
who participated.

During the morning Florence .... click
http://moodle.cawd.net/course/view.php?id=137 for the full story -
you'll find it as "Latest News" in the middle of the page.

##########

5.  Shopping on-line can help CAWD.
As Christmas approaches you may be shopping online. Many major stores -
such as Marks and Spencers, Jessops, Toys R Us, Currys, Comet, Hamleys,
and lots more make a donation to your chosen charity if you buy online
through easyfundraising. You can nominate CAWD as your chosen charity.
It costs you nothing - in fact there are often excellent special offers.
It's an easy way to shop, and it boosts our funds - so please check the
link for your favourite suppliers - keep this link to hand - and pass it
on to your friends http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/

##########

Summary
The Teachers Talking second anniversary online celebration was a great
success. The cewlebration story was used to try out our new "alerts"
approach to the Newsletter using Cawdnet Campus. There was also a
reminder that shopping online through http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/
is a great way to boost CAWD's funds.

##########

This newsletter is being sent to you because according to our records
you have expressed an interest in our work and consented to receive
these emails.

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CAWDNET-News@...
To subscribe or unsubscribe please visit : -
http://lists.cawdnet.kabissa.org/mailman/listinfo/cawdnet-news

CAWD is a UK Registered Charity (number 1104228).

Balancing Act is a great online publication for anyone who needs to keep
up with telecomms in Africa.

I am sharing a recent article because it may interest group members  who
want to get a better idea of trends regarding GSM phones in Africa - a
key issue regarding how we manage to communicate, "rub minds", and learn
from each other.

As well as the article (Top Story- GSM>3G AFRICA 06: MASTERS OF THE
UNIVERSE FACE A TOUGHER CLIMB)
I have included full details of the publication.
I have deleted all the other articles - but you can access them via the
archives.
Pam

-------- Original Message --------
Subject:  Issue 328: GSM>3G AFRICA 06: Masters of the universe face a
tougher climb
Date:  Mon, 23 Oct 2006 10:53:55 +0100
From:  Russell Southwood <editorial@...>
Organization:  Balancing Act
To:  englishlist@...


Balancing Act's News Update 328 (23rd October 2006)
____________________________________________________________________

COMING SOON: Low-cost mobile operators and the new wave of muni networks
____________________________________________________________________

(snip)
____________________________________________________________________

IN THIS ISSUE:
_____________________________________________________________________

Top Story

- GSM>3G AFRICA 06: MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE FACE A TOUGHER CLIMB

Telecoms News

- INTERNATIONAL CALLING PRICE FALLS ARE SPREADING ACROSS EAST AND
CENTRAL AFRICA

- TRANSCORP TO INVEST US$1 BILLION IN NITEL AND MTEL

- BILLING SYSTEM FAILURE COSTS ETC WELL OVER 14MIN BIRR

- RED TAPE OBSTRUCTS MTC'S GROWTH IN NAMIBIA

- MTN SIGNS INTERCONNECT AGREEMENT WITH INTERCONNECT CLEARINGHOUSE NIGERIA

- KENYAN POLICE SEIZE STOLEN COPPER CABLE BOUND FOR CHINA

- SPECTRUM SPLIT ‘MUST BE BOLDER’, SAYS SIEMENS

Internet News

- ONLY TWO OUT OF SEVEN MOOTED COUNTRIES SIGN EASSY GOVT PROTOCOL IN
LATEST ROUND

- ADDITIONAL IP RANGE FOR ADSL USERS IN SOUTH AFRICA

- ALGERIE TELECOM HOPES TO DOUBLE INTERNET SUBSCRIBERS TO SIX MILLION
USING WIRELESS LOCAL LOOP

Computer News

-  SOUTH AFRICAN TECH LOBBY URGES MPAHLWA TO UPDATE COPYRIGHT ACT

-  SOUTH SUDAN EYES RWANDA'S ICT EXPERTISE

-  ELECTRONIC TICKETS TO BE TESTED IN LUANDA BUSES

- SHUTTLEWORTH BACKS KDE DESKTOP ENVIRONMENT

On the Money

-  SOUTH AFRICA NEDBANK EMPOWERS SMALL BUSINESSES THROUGH MOBILE TECHNOLOGY

-  ORASCOM EGYPT WANTS CONTROL OF HTIL

-  DATATEC'S LONDON LISTING FALLS SHORT

Web and Mobile Data News

-  LAUNCH OF ONLINE NEWS SERVICE IN ZIMBABWE

-  HIGH WEBSITE COSTS HURT ORGANIC DEALERS IN UGANDA

-  CELLICIUM IMPLEMENTS SONATEL MOBILES’ USSD BROWSING SOLUTION

_____________________________________________________________________

TO SUBSCRIBE:

If you want to subscribe to News Update, either in english or french go to:
http://www.balancingact-africa.com/mailing_list/subscribe.php

If you want to unsubscribe to the english edition, send a blank e-mail to:
englishlist-unsubscribe@...
_____________________________________________________________________

TO CONTACT US:

Russell Southwood, Balancing Act, 71 Crescent Lane, London SW4 9PT
Tel/fax: + 44 20 7720 5993 Cell: + 44 7973 561987 E-mail:
editorial@...

To ring or IM using Skype at no cost: news_balancingact
Pour nous contacter gratuitement via Skype: news_balangincact

- > WEEKLY PUBLICATION DEADLINE: 12 pm GMT Sunday

(snip)
TOP STORY: GSM>3G AFRICA 06: MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE FACE A TOUGHER CLIMB
_____________________________________________________________________

For the past ten years Africa’s mobile operators have walked on water.
They have connected hundreds of millions of people incredibly quickly.
They have extended coverage to places where there are no roads or power,
making Africa’s telco incumbents look like flat-footed dinosaurs. They
literally got Africa talking to itself. Almost everything they touched
seemed to turn to gold. But as the growth curve tails off, these new
African masters of the universe are facing some fairly serious
challenges. At the end of the industry’s annual talk-fest GSM Africa >
3G Russell Southwood looks at the trouble ahead.

The mobile operators have become masters of the universe in a short
period of time and they dominate the “mind-space” of the continent.
Their branding and media spend in most African cities means that few
people can ignore them and it is a visible sign of their seeming
invincibility. They have gone from being insurgent challengers to
becoming the new incumbents. But new challengers are going to enter the
market and want to take a pop at them.

Although it’s difficult to generalise across a customer base in the
millions, the African consumers on whom they rely are beginning to go
from being deeply grateful for any service to becoming more demanding,
particularly on price and quality of service: they are noticing the
leads and lags in network investment.

Maybe when the histories are written in ten years time, it will be this
year that will be seen as the high water mark of the mobile operators’
success. If you listen carefully, you can identify a number of pressures
that are beginning to crowd in on them.  Whilst it would be foolish to
think they won’t be able to respond to them, they certainly have a much
tougher climb ahead of them.

The challenges that they will have to get to grips with include:

Low levels of competition on price:
Although there are often three competitor companies in a country, there
is usually only a very small percentage difference in price between the
cheapest and the most expensive. In countries with two operators, the
price difference is almost non-existent. For example in Botswana, you
could not put a piece of paper between the rates offered by Mascom and
Orange. All of this is obscured by a blizzard of tactical marketing
offers. But to rework the famous phrase from the Godfather movie, this
is a case of “make me an offer I can’t understand.”

There is now a dawning awareness amongst key African regulators that
they have a role to play in protecting the African consumer and that
price and quality of service are two issues they will have to tackle.
Some are using investigations into interconnect pricing as a proxy for
achieving this aim. The mobile operators are increasingly seen as the
well-resourced new incumbents who resist greater levels of competition
and technological innovation. This shift in positions was crystallised
for me by watching a year ago a senior regulatory staff member from a
mobile operator browbeating a regulatory CEO about his desire to open up
his country to competition. In the event, the mobile operator was not
successful in resisting change but the point is that the major mobile
operators are now in a defensive rather offensive mode in terms of
competition.

Price relative to income:
African mobile prices mean that consumers spend a far higher percentage
of their income on mobile communications than their developed world
equivalents yet they earn so much less. This used to be a factor to
marvel at: it just goes to show how important communications is to
Africans, people used to say (including myself) in a sage sort of voice.

But the truth is that high prices are actually blocking further market
development. If you want your subscribers to spend money on other
“value-added” services, then you have to free up that spending unless
incomes grow much faster than at the current rate. If you want users to
stop “beeping” and talk, rates have to come down.

A survey in an informal settlement in Nairobi called Kibera (that has
0.75m people living there) found that a single mobile was shared by five
people. Again we all marvelled at how Africans found a way in the face
of adversity. But actually what this is saying is that the mobile
operators have failed to reach some significant portion of a potential
customer base. If those who live in Kibera sell their tin shacks to each
other, there’s money in there but the mobile operators are not reaching it.

The truth is that the mobile operators have not yet reached the bottom
of the price elasticity curve. Rates need to come down to reach whole
sections of Africa’s rural and urban populations. As we will see, the
dilemma for the mobile operators is whether they will make the same from
lower rates (as people talk more) or whether they can devise a way of
lowering their rates for particular groups of people.

Even the normally sober-minded Informa Principal Analyst Devine Kofiloto
was moved to observe that there have been few benefits to
consumers:”It’s largely the shareholders who are smiling.” Celtel’s CEO
Martin Pieters was sufficiently stung by this to point out that his
company had not paid shareholders a dividend for ten years.

The other part of the pricing puzzle is the mobile fixed paradox. Once a
mobile network is established and the CAPEX has largely been paid back,
it’s much cheaper to connect a mobile subscriber than it is to connect a
fixed line customer. Yet it is more expensive to use a mobile phone than
it is a fixed phone. In the early days of mobile phones this could be
justified by the fact that consumers were being charged a premium for
mobility. However, when mobiles are the majority device for voice on the
continent, it is significantly more difficult to sustain this argument.
And fixed/ mobile convergence must surely mean that the two rates come
together and disappear over time: rates based on technologies are
certainly not technology-neutral.

Falling growth and lower ARPUs:
In his introduction to the conference, Informa’s James Barker told
delegates that subscriber growth was slowing down: there had been two
quarters with growth below 10%. Devine Kofiloto reinforced this gloomy
message by showing projections that identified overall growth flattening
in 2009. But in East Africa, growth flattens in 2008, which is only two
years away.

However, the picture is not all gloom and doom. For example, Nigeria
will surpass South Africa as the largest market on the continent in
2007. Nevertheless operators now have to face a slowing pace of
subscriber growth and the newer subscribers will also be more costly to
acquire.

ARPUs are falling as the hill gets steeper. A selection of pre-pay ARPUs
from the second quarter of 2006 illustrate the point: Sonatel, Senegal
($15.42);  Spacetel, Benin ($13.90); Vodafone Egypt ($10.41); UTL,
Uganda ($9.07). Headline blended ARPUs often disguise this sharp-end
reality.

The lowest overall ARPUs are found in East and Central Africa and it is
East Africa where the uphill growth road is running out fastest. The
highest decline in ARPUs has occurred in West Africa from where some of
our examples above are taken.

Indian ARPUs have in some instances gone as low as $4-7 in some parts of
the major networks and this is probably somewhat nearer the bottom of
the pricing elasticity curve. But there are significant differences
between India and Africa in terms of population densities: typically
rural areas may have around 200 plus people per sq km against 100 or so
people found in Africa’s uncovered areas.

The question is really what operating profit margins operators can
sustain. The case of Zantel is illustrative. In 2005, operating only on
Zanzibar, its ARPU was $10. It now has 320,000 subscribers but Zantel’s
CEO Noel Herrity refused to reveal current ARPUs. Like the dog that
failed to bark in the Sherlock Holmes story, we can reasonably deduce
that the current ARPU is lower than $10 or there would be a lot of
barking about it. And this is achieved in part through a roaming
agreement (leasing the network, if you will) with Vodacom on the
mainland. If the margins are there to lower prices (and thus ARPUs)
while leasing a network, what might the network operator Vodacom achieve
in price terms if it were so minded?

The more optimistic are looking to data to at least partly fill losses
in income. However, whilst technology push is delivering ever more
sophisticated services it is not clear how the majority of Africa’s
hard-pressed mobile customers will afford these services. But for all
the problems of literacy, SMS text messages remain the main driver of
data revenue growth. And the story here is the same as for voice: where
prices for SMS are low, as in Lesotho, usage goes up. African consumer
communications spend may not be entirely a zero sum game (where one kind
of spending will inevitably replace another) but there is little sign of
a wave of rising incomes.

Competition from low-cost, mobile VoIP operators:
As African countries like Algeria, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania and
Kenya become more competitive, several of the continent’s hard-pressed
ISPs are re-inventing themselves as VoIP service providers: sitting on
the services and applications layer and offering voice services to their
customers. A few have seen the light of day and more are in the wings.
Initially they will offer fixed wireless services but even these
services have a degree of in-built mobility: “locked to one cell” will
become a largely negotiable space. Mobile operators would do well to
remember the history of Reliance where it parlayed its fixed wireless
presence across India into becoming one of continent low-cost mobile
operators. And it is only a one to two year “skip, hop and a jump” to
mobile VoIP.

Jamal Ramadan, Group Vice President, Special Products, MTN recently gave
the following rather revealing comment on low-cost operators:“Community
phones using VoIP over fixed wireless Internet connections will have
some negative impact but it can be managed through data pricing and
interconnect.” The last five words can only mean of two things. Either
we will work closely in partnership with these kinds of operators or we
will fix data pricing and interconnect to their disadvantage.

You do not need to be a cynic to imagine that the latter is more likely
but the mobile operators may not be in a position to choose the
interconnect. If in more competitive African countries, the telco
incumbent’s network is used at a carefully established, cost plus price,
why will it be any different for mobile operators? What’s sauce for the
goose is sauce for the gander. So mobile operators will either have to
go to the edges of the market themselves or help others to do so.

The operators rightly complain about the high level of Government taxes
and how this prevents them from extending services and lowering prices.
And Pieters of Celtel pointed out:”We expect (the roll-out) of power and
roads to be in the interest of the Government but we see little
happening there.” Of course, he’s right but this is a log-jam with
blame-calling at high volume.

Why not turn the problem into the solution? An alliance of leading
operators could negotiate time-limited “tax-breaks” for serious
roll-outs of integrated packages of roads, power and telephony. Such a
programme would easily attract international support. The mobile
operators could use their considerable reputation to insist that there
were independent power operators and privately commissioned road
contractors. Does any one of them have the courage to turn this problem
into an opportunity?

Falling international rates and roaming charges:
International calling and roaming revenues are a minor but significant
revenue stream for mobile operators. The small percentage of their
post-paid customers contribute a disproportionate amount of high-margin
revenue. Unfortunately this is beginning to change: see the story below
in Telecom News - International calling price falls are spreading across
East and Central Africa.

The lower end of fixed and mobile operator international calling rates
are now between 20-25 cents a minute down from previously much higher
levels. Part of this reduction has been the liberation from monopoly
international gateways but the rest is driven by VoIP service providers
in competitive markets. However, there is a silver lining as lower rates
mean that traffic goes up. But even with a considerable increase in
traffic, you are probably back where you started in revenue terms. Good
for bandwidth sales, less good for operator revenues.

In addition, roaming charges will come down as operators follow Celtel’s
lead in lowering them for its neighbouring countries in East Africa.
MTN’s CTO Karel Pienaar said they would follow suit although he couldn’t
quite bring himself to say the word follow. He pointed out that in West
Africa MTN now has a series of contiguous countries with only a gap in
Togo. He observed that if they could connect these then rates could come
down because there would be no expensive sending of calls to the USA and
Europe to connect with African neighbours. Given how relatively small
Togo is to cross, this is again a political problem that must find a
commercial solution.

Increasing deal competition:
Fierce deal competition will put considerable pressure on those who
raise their money in the market rather than from petro-dollar rich Arab
investors. Those loaning money or investing are typically looking for
12-15% return on their investment, higher if there are risks attached.
Riding on the wave of relatively high oil prices, Arab investors are
willing to look at lower returns and longer time scales. Celtel’s
Pieters pointed out that the Dubai Investment Authority typically looked
at 50 years:”The shareholders I’ve worked with would be very happy with
3 years.”

These rather different assumptions about investment have driven up
acquisition prices to stratospheric levels. In places as diverse as
Egypt and Mauritania, Arab investors have paid “top-dollar” for
licences: the price paid for the third mobile licence in Egypt was
higher than the market cap of the number one operator. And as Celtel’s
Pieters kept reminding his audience all this money “just for a piece of
paper.” But financial markets behave in strange ways.

The current ramp of mobile shareholder value is built on the expectation
of increasing capital value: what happens when this ceases to be true?
What happens when the steeper climb produces lowered expectations
reflected in lower subscriber growth and ARPUs? What goes up, must come
down.

But the game’s not over yet as 57% of Africa’s operators remain outside
the ownership of the big four: MTN – 15%, Vodacom – 14% , Celtel – 7%,
and Orascom – 7%. Celtel’s Pieters foresaw a day when 4-5 players would
control  60-70% of the business. But there are two potential challenges
to this “onwards and upwards” narrative.

If Arab investors have deep pockets, Celtel will do well but what about
Vodacom that has already said acquisition prices are largely too high
for it? And surely Arab investors will think about buying MTN? MTN’s
Pienaar said he was “not aware of anything like that happening at the
moment” More intriguingly the issue of whether Cell-C would be bought by
Celtel was raised. Celtel’s Pieters said: “Jeff Hedberg and I go back a
long way. It would work easily at a management level.”

The other possibility is that someone will go round and gather up
existing failing operators at relatively cheap prices and build
themselves an entirely new brand. Unfortunately for the existing mobile
operators any insurgent competitor will almost certainly challenge on
price. But there are also a couple of CAPEX “down-steps” out there that
may make this an even more difficult prospect. CDMA is cheaper than GSM
particularly now as operators are putting in the full alphabet soup of
data capability. What if someone had the nerve to bring together a group
of CDMA networks?

But beyond that, there is the ground zero option: a fully IP mobile
operation. If you’re a unified licence operator starting from scratch,
you will build yourself a largely IP-enabled network. This might be
extended out into the mobile network as the elements come into focus
over the next three years. A greenfield IP mobile operator might have
real cost advantages over the slower moving mobile incumbents. And
arguably until recently not all major mobile operators have been
characterised by high levels of technology innovation.

You take the high road, we’ll take the hot-spots:
Except for sales reps and similar professions, most people spend only up
to 10% of their time on the road. The new wireless challengers in the
voice space – Wi-Fi and Wi-MAX – will have difficulty taking the road
but may acquire an interesting share of everything but the road. And
where would this leave the mobile operators?

This was the implicit pitch being made by London-based South African
Niall Murphy, CTO of the Cloud. Whilst apologising for bringing European
experience, it was not too difficult to do the translation for Africa.

The Cloud operates Wi-Fi hot-spots in 8,500 locations across Europe,
with the majority in the UK. It has worked hard to make this network of
coverage as seamless as possible for data users and has recently added
IP voice to its service offerings. Its partners are a revealingly
eclectic mix of new wave challengers and incumbents: Telenor, O2,
Vonage, Skype, Nintendo, Vodafone, Bengo, Sprint, iPass, CredeCard, BT
Open Zone. It is tapping into the growing wave of municipal networks and
recently won the contract to wire the City of London, the capital’s
financial centre.

And this precisely because it allowed any device or service to connect
and did not offer an “only our service” approach. And here lies the
difficulty for the mobile operators. You can argue that MTN with its
developing understanding of Wi-MAX might position itself in this market
but how will mobile operators make sense of so many devices and services?

His European argument is that increasingly people are acquiring wireless
enabled devices (particularly laptops) they want to be able to use
anywhere. He is not selling it as a premium product but offering
packages for between 10-15 euros for users. A small but significant
proportion of traffic by kilobits is now coming from voice.

So let’s translate the proposition into African. There are two
potentially different markets: the business or professional person who
needs to be connected wherever they are and the person who might simply
want a cheaper phone service. The latter might have to wait for Wi-Fi
enabled phones but they will be here in volume before too long. The
former is almost exactly a mirror-image of the European customer with a
certain amount of price adjustment. Add in the roll-out of muni networks
in African cities and the proposition slowly comes into focus. Speaking
of which, the tender for doing this to Cape Town will be decided soon
and there is already a study for a city-wide muni network north of the
Limpopo.

It is at this point one might utter the Chinese curse to mobile
operators:”May you live in interesting times.” The only problem with
this is when I actually talked to a Chinese person about this well-known
saying, he gave me a blank look and told me no such curse exists. So
maybe that’s a lucky sign for Africa’s Masters of the Universe.

(snip)
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