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Casting a ballot for Africa: Kabissa, The Hub, Anti-Genocide Community, Nabuur.com, and Maps 2.0
I voted today.
When evaluating projects, I considered the six net2 attributes and also tried to imagine how, if implemented, they would affect the lives of Africans - and in particular the struggles of African civil society organizations to serve the needs of their communities. The projects I chose seemed to me to offer the most revolutionary impact across Africa (and indeed across the world) in part because they make creative use of Web 2.0 to leverage their impact.
It is early days yet, of course - the voting continues on until Saturday at noon and, creatively, the organizers are letting us change our votes until then. I may yet change my mind - if I do I'll let you know here.
- Kabissa 2.0: Strengthening the Social Web in Africa
Marries power of Web 2.0 with passion of 900+ African orgs in our network. Savvy Web 2.0 Ambassadors will collaborate through the Kabissa site and face to face to develop and promote homegrown strategies for employing Web 2.0 for social change. - The Hub
Imagine a My Space meets You Tube for human rights - an online destination where global citizens could learn the strategies and access the tools they needed to use their visual documentation of abuses to create community action and change. - An Anti-Genocide Community: Building the Political Will to End Genocide
Empowering anti-genocide activists with the tools for community-based education, user-generated content and strong shared connections, the anti-genocide community will pool the collective knowledge of a growing movement for change. - A Global Neighbor Network: Nabuur.com
NABUUR is an internet platform where villages in developing countries get direct assistance. Online volunteers help create whatever is needed in 150 villages now, and with your help in 10,000 villages soon: join a societal revolution! - Maps 2.0 - Geospacial tools for Nonprofits and Humanitarian Relief
Maps 2.0, a collaboration already under way, will launch the first online resource for nonprofit and humanitarian organizations to share best practices in geographic information systems (GIS) and digital mapping tools.
- Tobias Eigen's blog
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NATA VILLAGE BLOG
Hey folks - Don't forget the voting has been extended until Monday, and it's not too late to update your ballot if you want to add your support for some great African projects. I have added Nata Village to my ballot today - I love the project.
Happy voting!
Cheers,
Tobias
Social Source Commons, Moulin Wiki and Farmer 2 Farmer
Three other recommended projects are below - as identified by the Kabissa team.
I can't believe I missed the Social Source Commons, which I betatested last year and was hugely enthusiastic about then. Gunner is a terrific advocate for Web 2.0 and probably coined the phrase "Web 2.0 Hype Enabled" that I use in every third sentence when talking about the subject. :-)
The Social Source Commons helps nonprofits find appropriate software to support their work, and share knowledge about tools. It is the only venue on the net striving to build a complete inventory of what software is available for nonprofit needs.
The moulin wiki project is our attempt to improve the access to basic information and reference material in developing countries by making it possible to access Wikipedia, the world's largest, free encylopedia, offline.
Farmers in developing countries can become more efficient and market oriented when they learn from experiences of themselves and their colleagues. Our tool will provide them with the means to learn by comparison.
Yankana.org
A quick update: I thought you all might like to know that Kim, Liz and I at Kabissa reviewed the proposals independently, and arrived at almost the exact same list of five favorite projects! The one difference was that they voted for Yankana.org instead of the Anti-Genocide project. I looked at Yankana.org and it is indeed a very powerful project idea and I hope it is successful!
Thank you!
Just wanted to thank you for your support for the Anti-Genocide Community. I agree that all of these are very, very strong projects. I am particularly excited about The Hub -- the chance to amplify the voices of people documenting human rights abuses could be really revolutionary in mobilizing support.
Thanks again!
Some great selections!
Thanks, Tobias, for including Maps 2.0 on your list of some stellar projects. We believe that Kabissa 2.0 and the others you highlight deserve voter attention and support, for the reasons you outline. All five have a track record of collaboration and have the potential to scale. Good luck!