Of blogging, hypertexting, class, and aftermath

I don't know what I did yet I had to abandon the blog. I am worried. My report card! And for my pains, Habesh Continental for a Monday evening. Worth it. Ethiopian. I didn't. I slept in my bed.

Ginger in my eyes. I read that email and confirmed that luck had come my way. DiploFoundation chose to train us on the Internet governance process. Gratefully and nervousely, I enrolled into the IGCB 09 class and for close to three months, it has been an experience. Undisputeably, a thank you Steph is very much in order. I never heard my tutor speak, and to infer to an observation, I too never got the chance to see how other classmates  listen. We hypertexted, hypertexed, blogged, made forum entries, hypertexted and hypertexted, had a Friday online chat session, spied the Cantina and sought information and knowledge. And the day for the final examination came, two questions attempted and ... It has to be a new dawn. The networking resumes shortly. But then, what a beauty for a class. 

However, Arsene Wenger FC had not done me any favours, I had to nurse my daughters to health, felt the hurt in pockets, opportunities dwindled, and to see bullet proof V8s packed and no internet connectivity, the stress had boiled enough. Come the Monday evening, it had to be to the nearest Ethiopian hospitality. Habesh Continental at the banks of the Nile. Emerging and not disappointing, the atmosphere by Juba standards and starless ofcourse, was splendid. The rooms go for US $ 180 only per night. I had to remind my self. There is only a today, a tomorrow and a now. I need to get busier. Mukumu ducks, I am around.

Blogger or Journalist? A new vocation?

If you don't want to be touched by a monkey tail, don't join the monkeys dancing. I don't remember joining the monkeys dancing. That I used to hop from tree to tree should not tantamount to my being a monkey. I am not a monkey. I am not a journalist. I am a blogger. I blog. I run an online diary. Period. Could being a blogger be a new vocation?

Running an online diary shouldn't mean that I am a journalist! I quote my self: That I used to hop from tree to tree should not tantamount to my being a monkey. My be I mimic monkeys! May be I mimic journalism. That one writes should not construe to a fact that one is engaged in journalism! A writer is a writer and a journalist is a journalist. And a blogger is a blogger! It is true, we could be cousins. Let us not forget the webmasters and Listserv creators!

"It seems to me that if a blogger is a journalist, everyone can produce a blog and never be subject to a subpoena," McCorriston

The law is being manourved by the evolutions stirred by the internet. Even if it means bending, the law should adjust its self to suit new age. The law should never come in the way of human capacities! The way the world thought yesterday is not helpful to the realities of today's information age and communication revolution. Journalism, publishing, copy rights and related rights need to be readjusted too to match the times!

Here is an instance of some known journalists and students of online journalism who eventually become bloggers: I present Esther Nakazi's blog and Kimume Paul's blog. Blogging and journalism is different. Whereas journalism has a formular, blogging presents none ... as yet. Are (all) bloggers journalists? Should a blogger enjoy the privelegdes of journalist? Even then, should the journalist continue enjoying those archaic privileges? An interesting case at the First Ammendment Centre site by Associated Press is here

Excerpts:

Attorney William McCorriston, in a lawsuit brought by landowner James Pflueger over the failure of the Kaloko Dam, claims that Malia Zimmerman of Hawaiireporter.com is a blogger who isn't entitled to withhold her sources of information.

But Zimmerman, an editor and reporter for the Web site, says she is a legitimate journalist, not just some hack who offers half-baked commentary on the news of the day.

PICTURE Africa! Ugandan Bloggers and the Danish Factor

PICTURE Africa
PICTURE Africa is an acronym for Poverty and Information and Communication Technology in Urban and Rural East Africa. PICTURE Africa is a three year study in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda. It is being funded by the IDRC. On Monday the 23rd April 2007, I met Kathleen Diga, from the International Development Research Centre IDRC. Katheen is the person behind the blog Picture Africa. Discussions were centred on issues regarding a communication strategy for the PICTURE Africa Project. We, later attended a joint meeting of teams from PICTURE Africa Project and Research ICT Africa (RIA) before finalising with PICTURE Africa Country team members. True! A Communication strategy has to be developed and implemented! Some pictorials at her post.

Ugandan bloggers
On Sunday, I had the chance to meet some faces behind the Ugandan blogsphere and the Danish students doing a documentary on Ugandan bloggers. Thanks to Dennis Matanda of the Call for the African Recolonisation fame.
Dennis was the idea behind the romantic atmosphere at Joglo, paid all the swine meat bills and accompanyment! A big thank you Dennis! Bloggers! Hips don't lie! Ugandan bloggers, FDC and UPC bloggers inclusive - I don't see the NRM bloggers!, love their bottle, love to flirt, have fun, chat, smoke and locate the g' spot! A blogger is about to fix or marry another in Uganda! A Ugandan tribe is being developed! Ugandan bloggers shall be a force to reckon with!

I left early. I had to! I had to babies sit! And now I say bye bye to the Danes. Come back again! The documentary! Thank you Ugandan bloggers who were there: S.A.G.E , Country boyi, I have left Copenhagen for Uganda! Feed me, love me, never leave me Carlo All sweetening hats who came Rumbling and Rubbish, you should also meet this Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwean Dennis Matanda!

Pearl of Africa my hoof

Mabira Forest! The events surrounding the Mabira Forest giveaway in Uganda have turned political, racist, emotional, chaotic name it. Ugandans have expressed them selves in the worst possible. Some members of parliament have begun the long rot in prison cells. Opposition leaders are exploiting the situation and their reward is a good bath with (liquid?)teargas. Will Mabira go or not? All national news rooms are portraying the reactivities in Uganda.

Well now that all is not right about Uganda at the moment, so are the Ugandan bloggers and websites. They are failures! I think Ugandans are sleeping in the blogging era! Few are blogging! And few are blogging with regularity!

So whence the comrade thinks otherwise, I begun to ponder who is a Ugandan blogger! I think a Ugandan blogger is a blogger keeping a journal the situation and events about Uganda and not necessarily a Ugandan native blogging!

I think a blogger should be identified according to the premises that cause the content of their blogs. The Danish national who left Copenhagen for Uganda is a Ugandan blogger! She is blogging about events in Uganda! Right? I would call the famed Hash of the White African site an African Blogger and a Kenyan Blogger! He blogs from a Kenyan and African perspective! The 27th Comrade! I think you are a Ugandan blogger! The Danish students offer a clue in their post

Mabira! Good governance my hoof!

Uganda has a daddy! He is giving away his legacies and Mabira forest! His out-law intends to grow sugar cane! Ugandans may demonstrate and die but planting a natural forest is quite easy!
Crazy as it might seem, the inevitable is deemed to happen! And if I were to believe the editors at the The Monitor, then M7 either has a unique vision or cares less if not both! Has Museveni really decided to give away Mabira.

"As to the courts, the judges are not the ones who liberated Uganda. Their vision can not be superior to the one of freedom fighters...those are my views and stand."

If such an excerpt is one from a president's letter to his premier, then fadal! Welcome to the reality in Uganda. With three Ugandans dead, Ugandans seeming like racist pigs for attacking Ugandans of Indian origin, and daddy my hoof still bent on awarding the forest to his environmental outlaw by popular opinion, then the out cries to save Mabira have yielded nothing but highlighted the leadership credentials of a despot in a banana republic!

From the Information Society perspectibe, I too ask! Where are the Ugandan bloggers and websites? My verdict is that Uganda has a hand full of bloggers and that 99p.c of Ugandan websites are failures one way or the other! Environmental websites in Uganda like the website of NEMA, and that of ACODE can not be relied upon to provide online timely information on what should be their niche in the fight to save Mabira - Mabira updates! There are afew Ugandan bloggers and most are sleeping as a group of Danish students could honestly say!

"We would like to get in touch with Ugandan bloggers to learn more about why they blog and what blogging can do - what kind of opportunities does blogging create for communicating in Uganda, and to the rest of the world? What effect does it have on Ugandan society, if any? We are the amateurs, and we need help from the professionals - you, the Ugandan bloggers. Only you can tell us what blogging means to you."

Nothing

By Henry Owera
Why do I blog!? I blog because I can blog! I blog because I have a right to blog (read communicate). I blog because I have to! I blog to release the pressure! I blog because I want to learn! And for whom do I blog? Primarily for myself and then welcome you! Rude ah! I hope not but it is the reality!

I blog because firstly, it is like communication with my inner self! But then here you are visiting this blog! I feeling like am communicating with us! Well I don't mind hosting you in the owerasphere! It is like sharing my tacit knowlege with us (Pun intended) So should I have patent rights over what I 'publish' at Owerah's Bits? Maybe!... NO! Yes! NO! Yes! I wish I knew! Am I infringing on other people's patent rights? NO! and sky above help me never to! But how do I handle blogging tacit knowledge!?

Just then the idea and purpose of blogging takes another trend! You (read they) peep into the owerasphere, and now I don't know what we are doing and want to do! This is the uncertain (and harsh) reality of blogging in the information age! Am your Wing Commander! Blogging is creating a communication revolution of a kind. I have decided to don a badge of The Electronic Frontier Foundation : Defending Freedom in the Digital World I hope any blogger here joins EFF for guidance and moral solidarity.

"EFF is a nonprofit group of passionate people — lawyers, technologists, volunteers, and visionaries — working to protect your digital rights."

As for a Morgan, thanks for visiting owerasphere! But what a coincidence! I love being an Owera! I have made that vital link to your site! I could have donated space and worn your logo on Owerah's Bits -a new kind of aid in the Information Age

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Disclaimer: Other than sharing names and alias, Henry Owera is not linked whatsoever with the entities behind the sites http://www.owera.com nor http://www.bakata.com