Test call by HAFOTI Director. HAFOTI is an NGO working on Womens issues in Timor Leste

Links

1. More photos of the Dili Village Telco roll out.
2. The Dili Village Telco Wiki.
3. Other blog posts in the Dili Village Telco series.

Related posts:

1. Village Telco at linux.conf.au (LCA) 2010 I have just returned from LCA 2010 where I presented…
2. Factors Affecting Village Telco Performance This post discusses the factors that affect the quality of…
3. A2Billing with Village Telco We are pleased to announce the release of A2Billing 1.4.4…

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read original post on drowe's Site

Here is the press release, the short description of the project, and some very last-minute guerilla user testing done the day before launch.

One week later we have 37,000 subscribers and 3,600 user comments have been posted. Not bad at all!

read original post on Steve Vosloo's Site

read original post on Steve Vosloo's Site

read original post on Steve Vosloo's Site

We’re on a mission to get the FHSST books completely proof-read by next week. We were doing a lot manually which required people be in Cape Town if they wanted to help out but we’ve since uploaded the books to a.nnotate.com where anyone in the world can browse and annotate errors etc. so you can help from anywhere you have an internet connection.

We’d still like to coordinate efforts to make sure we cover all chapters well. Volunteer editors should email Bridget Nash [ bridget AT siyavula DOT org DOT za ] to find out where we’re still a bit thin.

Here are the links to take a look – but please coordinate with Bridget if you’re going to contribute:

Physical Science Grade 12 on Annotate.com

Physical Science Grade 11 on Annotate.com

Physical Science Grade 10 on Annotate.com

Mathematics Grade 12 on Annotate.com

Mathematics Grade 11 on Annotate.com

Mathematics Grade 10 on Annotate.com

read original post on Mark Horner's Site

Our schools are struggling due to the nation wide strike. Learning needs to continue at the schools, many of whom are running on skeleton crews. A group of volunteers have authored a set of open source textbooks and resources that can to support learners and educators in this time. The open copyright license allows the government to distribute it openly at the cost of printing it.

These Grade 10 – 12 Mathematics and Science books need a final review before it will be accepted and distributed by the Department of Education. We have 10 days to complete the review and would like to call on all mathematicians and scientists for help.

Which mathematician and scientists?

The subject matter is Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry at high school level. We need volunteers who have post-graduate degrees in Maths, Physics, Chemistry or related fields and are willing to serve their country.

What do we have to do?

It is quite simple, we need to proof-read the books and correct any errors. The curriculum is covered, there are enough worked examples but there are a few errors which we need to find and fix. If time permits we can also simplify language and add more worked examples but this is secondary.

How we plan on doing it.

Volunteers can join us for one or many of the following slots at the Open Innovation Studio (27 Buitenkant Street in Cape Town) where we will be working through the books. Alternatively volunteers can receive material and provide feedback by e-mail. Volunteers will read a section, correct it and submit it for capturing. We want every section read by two independent people to reduce the possibility of errors slipping through.

We will provide copies of the material to be edited, food (lunch or dinner), drinks and a superb atmosphere.

We have 1800 pages to read and we estimate that we need at least 6 people for each of Maths, Chemistry and Physics to complete the process. A final editor will be used for each of the books as a third and final check.

Update – We were doing a lot manually which required people be in Cape Town if they wanted to help out but we’ve since uploaded the books to a.nnotate.com where anyone in the world can browse and annotate errors etc. so you can help from anywhere you have an internet connection.

We’d still like to coordinate efforts to make sure we cover all chapters well. Volunteer editors should email Bridget Nash [ bridget AT siyavula DOT org DOT za ] to find out where we’re still a bit thin.

Here are the links to take a look – but please coordinate with Bridget if you’re going to contribute:

Physical Science Grade 12 on Annotate.com

Physical Science Grade 11 on Annotate.com

Physical Science Grade 10 on Annotate.com

Mathematics Grade 12 on Annotate.com

Mathematics Grade 11 on Annotate.com

Mathematics Grade 10 on Annotate.com

Time slots

Contact us

Mark Horner: mark.horner@shuttleworthfoundation.org / 083 564 6272
or
Neels van der Westhuizen: neels@siyavula.org.za / 082 334 3259

More Details:

www.fhsst.org
www.siyavula.org.za
www.fullmarks.org.za
www.markhorner.net
qa.openpress.co.za
www.shuttleworthfoundation.org

The Free High School Science Texts (FHSST)

In 2002 we started a volunteer project to write right free high school science textbooks (www.fhsst.org). This took 5 years and we which took 5 years. We finished the first versions of the books in 2007 and haven’t touched them much since then. The books are released under an open copyright licence which allows for the legal adaptation, enhancement and distribution of the books.

We were planning on beginning to work through the books correcting errata and developing full model solutions so that we could release a new version in January. Model solutions would be put on another project we have developed FullMarks (www.fullmarks.org.za) which is to be launched this coming Friday 27th August.

The Siyavula Workbooks

We bought out a small curriculum development company that had developed a set of workbooks with teachers’ guides, lesson plans and work schedules covering all of Grades R-9 in both English and Afrikaans. We now own the copyright to the material which is released under an open copyright licence which makes it legal for people to copy, adapt, distribute and enhance the books.

read original post on Mark Horner's Site

The Cape Town Siyavula team was met with wintry weather in Durban as we touched down early on Friday morning. This did not dampen our spirits as we made our way to the Southern Sun North Beach Hotel to set up for the workshop. With a turnout of 21 AMESA teachers, we were A-for away and the workshop began.

As often happens when one has a set agenda, we veered off course straight away and got stuck into building topic trees, for assigned school Grades. Amidst much discussion the topic trees emerged, and it was then felt that a break for tea was well deserved. This was followed by an interesting talk by Prof Michael de Villiers of UKZN, who spoke about maths and symmetry in everyday life. As early evening approached, Mark initiated the introduction to uploading questions to the FullMarks website (agenda item 1!). He also demonstrated how to create equations using MathML, and how to take screenshots to upload diagrams.

This brought us to 19h10 which meant we had to hot foot it to uShaka for our dinner reservation at the Cargo Hold. There we spent an enjoyable evening getting to know one another and watching the fish and sharks swimming peacefully past us in the aquarium, as our 3 course meal was served. Despite our previous threats that the slow uploaders or those who misbehaved may end up being shark food, I am pleased to announce that everyone behaved themselves and so were spared this terrifying fate.

We were greeted by a beautiful summer’s day on Day Two, which began with a lovely breakfast buffet in the dining room of the hotel. The workshop then kicked off just after 09h00, with the goal for the day being to upload as many questions as possible.This had also been the goal from Day One which unfortunately was not realised, but we were determined to see success by the end of the afternoon. With a quick revision to start with, and internet voucher numbers entered, the teachers were ready to go.

The Siyavula team were on hand to provide tech support to the uploaders, especially as they attempted to use the maths editor on the FullMarks website. The maths editor is not particularly difficult to work with, it just takes a bit of practice to understand how to enter the data. It didn’t take long before everyone was getting the hang of things, and so the team agreed it was time to throw a spanner in the works and show the AMESA teachers a new system for uploading questions and answers!This was presented to them in the form of an OpenOffice template, which Mark promised was a very simple and far more efficient system to use. A fairly quick demonstration was given, which was greeted with exclamations of “why didn’t you show us this from the start?” and “this is so much easier than the other way!”. So much for being worried about confusing everyone further!

We had a very productive afternoon as the teachers’ confidence increased as they practiced using the OpenOffice template, and uploaded multiple questions and answers to the FullMarks website. As the sounds of success echoed around the room, another tea break was due and the chance to discuss our learnings amongst ourselves. It’s amazing what milktart and tea can do for conversation!

That was to be the final feeding and watering of the troops, and so once that was over Mark began the wrap up of the workshop weekend. Tasks were assigned to different teachers, and a discussion took place over what the next step would be. With tentative plans in place for the next workshop, everyone went their separate ways amidst smiles and hugs, and the Siyavula team was left feeling satisfied at the knowledge that was imparted and the progress that was made.

The Southern Sun North Beach Hotel provided a great venue for the workshop, despite the issues with holding an online workshop using internet vouchers. The vouchers had to be purchased in denominations of minutes to spend online, as opposed to MB or GB usage. It didn’t take long before vouchers were expiring and thus logging the users out of the FullMarks page, usually mid-upload; or if the page was left idle for too long, the same thing would happen. This hindered progress somewhat and caused frustration, especially as the uploading process is relatively painless and straightforward. However, the teachers were very patient, and understood that when they upload from a stable line, they will not have this problem.

Overall the Siyavula team had a great weekend of meeting new people, imparting knowledge, eating far too much delicious food, and most likely not getting enough sleep! Well done to everyone that attended and to the Siyavula team for organising this great event.

read original post on Mark Horner's Site

On 22 August a new library of cellphone stories – also known as mobile novels or m-novels – was launched by the Shuttleworth Foundation as part of its m4Lit (mobiles for literacy) project. Yoza is the name of the m-novel library, which uses cellphones to support teen reading and writing. The m-novels are cool, interactive and free. Yoza is available on www.yoza.mobi and on MXit (go to Tradepost > MXit Cares > mobiBooks) on all WAP-enabled cellphones, as well as on Facebook (search for Yoza Cellphone Stories).

Steve Vosloo, founder of Yoza and fellow for 21st century learning at the Shuttleworth Foundation, says: “For the foreseeable future the cellphone, not the Kindle or iPad, is the ereader of Africa. Yoza aims to capitalise on that to get Africa’s teens reading and writing.”

BACKGROUND TO THE LAUNCH
The m4Lit project began in 2009 as a pilot initiative to explore whether and how teens in South Africa would read stories on their cellphones. Most of the reading and writing that happens on cellphones is of very short texts, e.g. SMSes and chat messages on MXit. The Shuttleworth Foundation published a story called Kontax in September last year– twenty pages in length – and actively invited reader participation through this longer content; cellphones are interactive after all. Readers could leave comments on chapters, vote in opinion polls related to the story and enter a writing competition. By the end of May 2010 another Kontax story had been published.

The uptake was tremendous. Since launch, the two stories have been read over 34 000 times on cellphones! Over 4 000 entries have been received in the writing competitions and over 4 000 comments have been left by readers on individual chapters. Many of the readers asked for more stories and in different genres. Encouraged by the high uptake of the stories and by these reader requests, the Shuttleworth Foundation decided to launch Yoza.

WHAT ARE YOZA’S GOALS?
To get young people reading and writing
Yoza’s goal is to get young people reading and writing, and in the ‘book-poor’ but ‘cellphone-rich’ context of South Africa, the phone is a viable complement and sometimes alternative to a printed book. If, as a country, we want our youth to read, then both books printed on paper and books on cellphones are needed. The paper versus pixels debate consistently takes up a lot of page space, but in a country with a severe literacy problem, it is necessary to move beyond that and focus on reading and writing, whatever the medium.

To create good reading material
First and foremost, stories published on Yoza offer compelling, entertaining reading for teens in South Africa. The aim is to captivate teens and inspire them to catch the reading bug. To that end, an initial line up of appealing stories in different genres have been planned (see Yoza’s story line up below). Enjoying well-written stories by good authors is part of the Yoza experience. The m-novels are written in conventional language, with txtspeak only used when a character is writing or reading SMSes or instant message chats. Also included is prescribed school reading that is in the public domain, for example, Macbeth.

To use cellphones to make reading material affordable and widely accessible
There is a growing awareness around the impact that a lack of books has on literacy levels in South Africa. Books are scarce and prohibitively expensive for most South Africans. Stats show that 51% of households in South Africa do not own a single leisure book, while an elite 6% of households own 40 books or more. Only 7% of schools have functioning libraries.

What South Africa’s teens do have access to are cellphones, with stats indicating that 90% of urban youth have their own cellphone. The take up and interaction with the first two Kontax stories published in English and isiXhosa clearly demonstrates that cellphones are a viable platform for local teen reading and writing. There is no charge for the actual stories, but users do pay their mobile network operator for mobile data traffic. Images have been kept to a minimum to keep the mobile data charges low – these data charges on local cellphones range from 5c to 9c per chapter, making Yoza m-novels a very affordable option for great reading material for teens.

To be “open”
Part of Yoza’s success will be measured on the number of teens that read, enjoy and share its stories. The more, the better. For this reason stories are published under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike licence. This means that anyone can freely copy, distribute, display and remix the content, as long as they credit the original and subsequent authors.

The Praekelt Foundation was commissioned to develop the software platform that drives Yoza, and this too will be released as open-source software.

To grow the library of stories and create a community of readers
Over the next six months the plan for Yoza is to build a library of cellphone stories of multiple genres that are available to teens not only in South Africa, but ultimately throughout Africa. Kontax has already been published in Kenya through MXit. Competitions with airtime prizes prompt readers to participate in the interactive questions at the end of chapters, keeping readers engaged and coming back for more.

Current story languages include English and isiXhosa, an Afrikaans story is being written, and ideally stories in all of the South African languages will ultimately be published on Yoza. The Shuttleworth Foundation encourages the public to get involved in translating the stories into local languages – “if you translate it we’ll gladly publish it.”

To reach sustainability
While the Foundation is incubating the project, it will need to be sustainable from early next year. The project is actively looking for sponsors or partners to help make it sustainable.

WHAT’S IN THE YOZA LIBRARY?

• Kontax, the flagship title about a group of four teenage friends in Cape Town. In trial publications, the first two instalments of this m-novel series were read 34 000 times in seven months! The Yoza library features all m-novels in the series, with a fourth sequel launched on 22 August. This series is written by Sam Wilson and Lauren Beukes of Clockwork Zoo.
• Streetskillz is a brand new soccer series written by talented young writer and soccer fanatic Charlie Human. The first story – Golden Goal – launched on 22 August and is set in the month of the soccer World Cup. Unforgettable international soccer reality merges with a dramatic fictional street soccer competition in Du Noon township in Cape Town.
• Sisterz is a sassy new series by local chic lit star Fiona Snyckers. On 22 August Latoya’s Secret launched straight into the depths of dark family secrets, the highs of friendship, school Pop Idols auditions, and the breath-stopping sensations of first love.
• Confessions of a Virgin Loser by talented, thoughtful novelist Edyth Bulbring is the story of a Joburg boy steering his way through the complicated world of peer pressure, teenage sex and HIV/AIDS, while just trying to be a cool kid at school.

Sequels to the above stories will generally launch on the first of each month from October 2010. .

• A Bicycle Ride through Lesotho by Duncan Guy – of Learn the News fame – tells the entertaining tale of riding through the Mountain Kingdom on a bicycle.
• Yoza Classics is a section of its own, featuring a range of public domain titles. School prescribed work Macbeth is one of the first titles selected for Yoza Classics. The idea is not necessarily that teens will read the whole of Macbeth on their cellphones, but if they have to read Act 1; Scene 1 for homework and they don’t have a textbook, then they can do so on their phones.

USEFUL MEDIA INFO
Steve Vosloo, founder of Yoza, is the fellow for 21st century learning at the Shuttleworth Foundation. He has a technology background and focuses on youth and digital media.

Quote from Steve Vosloo
“We are looking to grow the library of stories as well as a vibrant community of young users who not only read the stories but participate in the commenting, reviewing and writing of them. We’re turning reading into a social, sharing experience.”

INFO FOR READERS
Teens – get reading on Yoza!

• Look out for interactive questions at the end of each chapter – there are airtime prizes to be won! Also look out for regular writing competitions to win more airtime.
• In August and September, Yoza and READ Educational Trust are giving away great prizes for the best story comments as part of Readathon 2010.
• Write a story for Yoza and submit it at www.yoza.mobi/write – if they like it, they’ll publish it.

Parents and teachers – get involved

• Encourage teens to read the stories, write comments and story reviews and enter the writing competitions.
• Bring Yoza into the classroom by using one of the stories as prescribed reading and have learners write assignments on it.
• Write a story for Yoza, or encourage your learners or child to submit a story at www.yoza.mobi/write. If they like it, they’ll publish it.

CONTACT
For further information contact:
Steve Vosloo
m4Lit Project Leader
Shuttleworth Foundation
Call: +27 (0)83 208 9891
Email: steve.vosloo@shuttleworthfoundation.org
Blog: m4lit.wordpress.com (for project updates)

Press Release
Issued by: Emerging Media
Contact person: Renee Conradie
Call: +27 (0)11 792 4706
Email: renee@emergingmedia.co.za

read original post on Steve Vosloo's Site

All images: Steve Vosloo, CC-BY-NC-SA-2.0. See them on Flickr.

read original post on Steve Vosloo's Site

There are four great new stories: Kontax (adventure), Sisterz (romance), Confessions (teen issues) and Streetskillz (soccer). There are other great once-off stories, such as a bicycle ride through Lesotho. And don’t forget Yoza Classics for the greats such as Macbeth. In total there are eleven stories in the library of m-novels, and we will work hard to grow that number and the number of young readers and writers on Yoza.

To read Yoza stories go to:

• www.yoza.mobi or
• MXit – go to Tradepost > MXit Cares > mobiBooks > Yoza

Yoza is also on Facebook.

read original post on Steve Vosloo's Site