My Ideal Video Game

This is to answer a class assignment asking what our ideal video game would be in relation to our blog topics. These are my thoughts:

An ideal game covering my topic would be a game for African youth in Africa. I thought of the idea of an African game for American children but the idea didn’t hold as much water to me. The reason for this is that my blog topic seeks to demonstrate how technology is developing and growing in Africa and its unique applications. And so, my game would seek to get the minds of the younger children on the continent to think in more technological ways that are directly beneficial to themselves and their environment.
In my game, there would be a problem in the village or town to solve. This could be, for example, a way to transport water from the main village center to individual homes or an attack from an unnamed people (or species). The object of the game would be to utilize local things within the village to create the solution to the problem. This could be, in the instance of the water transportation scenario, a piping system or in the case of the foreign attack, some sort of weapon. In all instances, the goals of the game would be technology-oriented and require creative and critical thinking.

The gamer would continuously be rewarded by the accuracy of the parts they choose for the technical ‘problem-solving machine’ and the speed at which they are able to identify and assemble them. There would also be visual improvements to the game environment as the player approaches a feasible end that would benefit the whole village and possibly win them a monetary prize or title. Reward could also be given for the most environmentally conservative applications/steps.
I think this would work well for African kids because they love to be seen as clever and they love titles and prizes. I believe all kids do.

My Infancy in Photography

I really do consider myself to be an infant when it comes to photography but I am learning. Here are my first shots. The first I am very proud of. I call it 'Cherry Blossoms Before Easter'. It was taken the Thursday before Easter and it was a beautiful day. My friends sat in a tree and posed for me. This was my best shot.

The second I know could have been better but it was taken during an event and I was siting in my seat. I couldn't get a better angle or focus. I saw the moment of concentration on the lesson that being given and decided to capture that. I call it 'Concentration in Shades.'

They both were edited using Picasa but the first didn't need much editing. 'I'm feeling lucky' was enough to make this picture almost perfect. The second one however needed a little more tweaking. I used the sharpen tool as well as the warmity and fill light. I also had to crop it. I think I will have better shots coming up. We will see!!!

The Story Behind the Picture

This week our class is taking a focus on photojournalism. This is a very new concept to me as I’m not a journalism major and I never really took too much time to think about how much work goes into conveying a message through pictures and video. So far we have learned a lot about how to make a picture tell a great story and how some pictures don’t do so well. With this in mind I am giving my own evaluation of some pictures I have found that do a great (and not so great) job of conveying my focus which is Technology in Africa (Ghana).

The first picture below is one that I fell in love with immediately:

It doesn’t have the best focus and the lighting is not the best but the centering of the children follows the rule of thirds and it tells a real story to me. I can see the excitement and enthusiasm of the children with their laptops. Their eyes are so glued on the screen they don’t even realize someone is taking a picture of them. It made me remember what it was like to be a kid and so engrossed with a computer or a game that I couldn’t even hear someone calling my name. Kudos to the photographer here.

Next is this picture:

This picture is one I also like a lot. One can see the rule of thirds coming out in the shot as well as the main items in the scene telling the story. Apparently these gentlemen are working on a technology incorporating a small solar panel. They seem very excited to be where they are and seem to have been quite busy with their gadgeting.

Here is one that doesn’t do a good job at all.

It looks like this picture was taken from a cell phone so you can only expect a certain quality but I believe the photographer could have done a better job with what was available to him. First of all, the bright light in the room makes the laptop and even the children’s faces very hard to distinguish. A simple shift in his angle could have rectified that. Shifting his angle also could have enabled him to show a better perspective and tell more of the story in the picture. Perhaps raising the camera to get a fuller image of the kids and little of the background would have made a huge difference.

Here is another that could have been ten times better with just a shift in angle.

The picture is actually very focused (at least to me) but the lighting is so horrible its hard to tell exactly what the photographer wants to show. Shifting a little to the right and maybe upward would have given a better reflection of all three computer screens, given the lady a better spot in the picture as well as obeyed the rule of thirds quite well. This is poor photography from all angles.

Here again is one that I feel was just someone at the right place at the right time.

This photo shows just how valuable cars indeed can be to the livelihood of a people. Many westerners would have discarded this vehicle long ago but this photographer captures how one man’s trash can be another’s treasure. The load is heavy and impossible to transport. It doesn’t look like the car can hold it but that’s not stopping these merchants in Mauritania. They continue to load and strap even with the car’s flat tires. This photographer really captured that moment.

I will be looking at pictures totally different these days, and also taking them differently. Next I will post my own pictures taken with my digital camera and edited with Picasa. Then you can be the judge of the quality.

How Do Ghanaians Do It?

With my last post in mind, I decided to do a survey of my own. With the help of a high school friend of mine based in Atlanta, we got as many of our friends in Ghana as we could in a few days to take a survey I created and tell us how they use facebook. We just wanted to know what keeps them coming and also what happened to Hi5, a social networking site that was very popular amongst Africans before facebook was born (yes, I still have mine even though I barely go there). What made everyone switch? Is it just a social thing or is it more than that? Here’s what we found out:

As you'll see from above, the numbers prove true about mobile phone use and the amount of time spent online. Mobile phone usage widely dominates the access with MTN being the largest mobile service provider. It was also shown that most of the users have been in use for three years or less. When asked, many prefer to use facebook to communicate with friends than even phone calls or email because its cheaper on their phones. A journalist uses it to spread information about his website and get readers for his articles. Many use it as the avenue to contact people outside the country instead of making international calls. Some gave stories of how they met friends that hadn't seen in over 10 years, some got jobs and contracts through facebook. One person even stated that they met their fiance on facebook.

Most said that they had been a member of Hi5, a social networking website that preceded facebook but they now are inactive even though they still have their accounts. Some dont even remember their passwords. They attributed facebook's takeover to it being user-friendly and the ability to chat. Other social networks used by participants include Twitter, Tagg, Myspace, LinkedIn and Badoo.

The Stats on Facebook in Africa

As we focused on social networking this spring break, I decided to dive a little deeper into social networking in Africa and see how different it was from America (per Dr. Yaros’ advice). I did a little googling and the numbers show that the craze is just as bad, if not worse, in Africa. One thing that has also stood out is the fact that most Africans access the facebook site and chat through their cell phones, not the internet. There are so many places that have not had internet land lines reach their villages but their cell phones work. This is how they stay alive in the facebook world.
A report on Appfrica.net mentions countries like South Africa with 1.1 million users, Egypt with 900.000 users and Nigeria with 220,000 users. Ismail Dhorat on his StartupAfrica site gives better figures on the penetration of facebook compared to the penetration of the internet.

Only 3.4% of the 220,000 facebook users in Nigeria actually use a computer. This is the big difference I believe. This is the very reason why Facebook is looking to make collaborations with mobile phone companies in Africa, reports Businessweek. They are using this strategy to increase the numbers even more. It also reports that facebook mobile users access the site more than traditional internet users.

Africa Fights Fake Drugs with Cell Phones

Sproxil is a company that was co-started by Ghanaian Ashifi Gogo (fellow BarCamper) that uses the ever popular mobile technology in Africa to verify the authenticity of pharmaceuticals. Check out the amazing story!!!

Press Freedom? We’re at the TOP

Ghana has been ranked the country with the highest press freedom in Africa and 27th in the whole world. Go Ghana!!!