Google, and the role of the Internet in Egypt

Whenever there is a political unrest anywhere in the world, many commercial business stay as far away as they can. The Egyptian story is no exception. I am yet to hear of any company publicly siding with either divide. I guess when your revenues exceed $20billion you may not see things that way.

Google is undoubtedly the world's most successful internet company. One might think they would want to have absolutely nothing to do with the crisis in Egypt. Google's name has however come up in two different incidences. These make one wonder and ask, 'what does Google want in Egypt?'.

Google partnered twitter and SayNow (a company it acquired the week before) to allow Egyptians post their comments, feedback and frustrations online by calling a phone number (+16504194196 or +390662207294 or +97316199855) and leaving a voice-mail. These messages were then posted to twitter for the whole world to see and respond to.

Just a few days after this initiative. Wael Ghonim, a young Egyptian Google manager was arrested after playing a key role in using the internet to spark the uprising against Hosni Mubarak. His actions were hailed by the protesters. Wael Ghonim, who went missing on 27 January, was behind a highly influential Facebook page that helped lead to what he described as "the revolution of the youth of the internet''.

I believe these actions have played major roles in assisting the protesters send their messages across, no only within Egypt, but across the whole planet. I believe in the freedom of expression, I hope you do too!

Three things you can do to create HIV/AIDS awareness

Today is the first day of December, not only is it the very first day in the Christmas month, it is World Aids Day as well. People from different walks of life are creating HIV/AIDS awareness in their own small way. Below are three suggestion you can consider if you would want to join the campaign.

• Tell someone what you know about HIV/AIDS

Twitter and other social platforms have been busy today with thousands of tweets and hundreds of status updates supporting the fight against this pandemic. I am sure you have a Facebook account and perhaps you are on twitter. You can tweet or retweet the many HIV tweets going round within your network. You can also add an HIV red ribbon on your avatar or Facebook profile picture by visiting twibbon. It wont take you more than a minute (that is if you have stable Internet!). Join the fight against stigmatization!

• Take an HIV/AIDS test

Have you taken an HIV/AIDS test before? Why don't you take a test today? I found out from a friend that Noguchi Memorial offers free counselling and testing services every Wednesday and Saturday. If only we all knew our HIV statuses, I doubt we would engage in certain activities. You can get directions to Noguchi here.

• Abstain, stop the spread!

Stay away from sex...at least just for today! If that will be difficult for you to bear, then why don't you use protection to avoid the risk of being infected or transmitting the virus to your partner.

Today is World/AIDS day, tell someone!

3 ways Governments can get closer to its citizens

Image by alles-schlumpf via Flickr

This week I wrote a post on how Ghana could copy the way US is leveraging on the power of technology and social media to reach out more to the citizens. Obama's state of the Union address was made available live to more people and in more ways than any event hosted since the Obama’s Inauguration. More than 1,300,000 people tuned into to the live video feed of the President’s State of the Union Address provided on the White House blog. After the speech, over 50,000 people stayed on to watch and engage with administration officials during a live Facebook event. Below are three lessons all governments can learn from the US example.

Start a blog, and be sincere about your issues
In this social media era, blogs are a very dependable way of disseminating information of any kind; good and bad. Just as the White House of US has started a blog to discuss happenings in government, I believe other local governments can do similar. The number of Ghanaians online is not as encouraging as it is supposed to be, but there still is a good number of Ghanaians with Internet access who would love to read reliable information presented by a source such as its own government official.

Catch them online via Facebook, twitter youtube
My research shows that there are 277,600 Ghanaians on facebook, some of these people access these platforms (especially Facebook and Twitter) via mobile. I believe very healthy discussions can be organisd on facebook chats and on twitter. Issues can be addressed online and questions answered by authorities in power.

Listen to its citizens online
Many aggrieved citizens vent their frustrations online by stating it in their facebook statuses, commenting on posts or by writing a post on the issue. There are many different smart tools the government can use to keep track of what its citizens are "saying" or discussing online. I believe this will help the authorities make better decisions in most cases.

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