FOKO Blog Club : TIMELINE

 

FBC-CPO group ,FBC-Tana group,FBC-Mahajanga , FBC-Tamatave : who is blogging from where? Members list here

 

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As the project is expanding and groups are very active in their locations, we have decided to get more bloggers involved in the coordination and management of their own group. Since December 2008, we gave each leader more responsabilities in distributing the digital cameras and internet connexion hours but also on  reporting and organizing their own activities. Our second Self-Evaluation wouldn't have been possible without the commitment of Tahina in Antananarivo, Patrick in Tamatave (http://club.foko-madagascar.org/author/patrick/),Randy in Antsirabe (http://club.foko-madagascar.org/author/randy) and now Jaona from Fianarantsoa (http://club.foko-madagascar.org/author/jaona). Facebook and Twitter have also been very active network between the Foko but also to share the news from the 2009 political crisis, more than 20 bloggers have opened a Facebook account (thanks to Lomelle) and 10 onTwitter (with updates from mobile phones).

 

February 2009

Here are our blog updates on Rising Voices :

Second Self-Evaluation http://rising.globalvoicesonline.org/foko/2009/03/02/foko-blog-club-second-self-evaluation/

Citizen Media tools to describe the struggles of a population http://rising.globalvoicesonline.org/foko/2009/02/

 

From Locations :

Ushahidi Comme Outil De Média Citoyen Lors De Crise

Exemplary works of Citizen Journalism from Antsirabe, Tamatave, Diego and Majunga

Twitter updates bring to light the intense networking between Foko bloggers

Antananarivo bloggers actively reporting on the 2009 political crisis

FBC tamatave

Challenges FBC Tana Faces During This Crisis

Manifestations du 27/02/09 à Fianarantsoa

 

January 2009

Here are our blog updates on Rising Voices :

January 2009 : a month of collective activism to remember at Foko http://rising.globalvoicesonline.org/foko/2009/01/

New! Podcasts and Videos : http://rising.globalvoicesonline.org/foko/2009/01/

 

2009 New year’s eve in Tamatave

(Antananarivo) Foko Picnic at Ambohidratrimo

Majunga, plus qu’une ville

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Here are our blog updates on Rising Voices :

http://rising.globalvoicesonline.org/foko/2008/12/19/antsirabe-randy-antananarivo-tahina-tamatave-patrick-reporting-on-foko-blog-club/

http://rising.globalvoicesonline.org/foko/2008/12/03/promoting-the-use-of-english-in-madagascar/

 

 

Stéphane is planning a gathering in Ambohidratrimo on Sunday, December 21st with the FBC Antananarivo

 

* December 17th

Antsirabe bloggers were busy with exams and later on celebrating the graduation of the 7th promotion from ESSVA. Most of the graduates are future Malagasy journalists now trained in Citizen Media. Randy Donny (teacher and coordinator) also reports that the students have started discussions with the school board to get permanent internet connexion at their library (individual connexions are still financed by Foko).

Koloina from ICE Antananarivo is working on his first reportage for the design website for African ingeniosity , Afrigadget. Tahina, the geek at Foko, is helping him with the content and hopefully they will be able to upload videos with the Club's laptop.

 

*December 10th

More than 10 blog posts were published under the "Why we blog about Africa?" tag and some bloggers, like lomelle (http://as2coeur.wordpress.com) were noticed on the popular French Citizen Media website rue89 : http://www.rue89.com/ivoire-blog/2008/12/09/pourquoi-bloguer-sur-lafrique

We also noticed dizains of overwhelming posts for AIDS Day (and this time they were published spontaneously!) :

http://patiettoi.wordpress.com/2008/12/01/stop-sida-ou-en-sommes-nous/

http://moonlightgirl.wordpress.com/2008/12/07/unending-fight-against-aids/

Randy, Tahina and Patrick have accepted to report regularly on the groups activities from their regions to inform and bring light on challenges they are meeting. This is an open way to find solutions with coordinators and readers on connexion problems (mostly) but also on getting more volunteers to help (video editing is a priority) or appeal them to support financially.

 

* December 3rd

Stéphane invited RTA City News to interview the Foko Bloggers on Citizen Media in Madagascar. Some members of ICE Club were present as well as Diana and Patricia the two activists. 3 blogs were opened this day, please post comments on : http://flagmada.wordpress.com, http://raintsa.wordpress.com, http://meggha.wordpress.com)

Patrick and Theophile are keeping up with their workshops to BUEC members. The first semester at Tamatave University is coming to its end so the English Club had their last meeting of the year discussing on the necessity of promoting English in Madagascar and celebrated their new president.

 

* Novembre 25

Jaona coordinator from Fianarantsoa is planning to meet Randy Donny in Antsirabe to get introduced to FBC and will teach 3 leaders of youth marginalized associations to Citizen Media. They are planning to train new groups in these two southern towns by January 2009.

__________________________

 

No workshops scheduled (but a lot of improvisations) :

 

Here are our blog updates on Rising Voices :

All FOKO working together as a community

Daily news from FOKO bloggers

 

 

 

* November 21st

 

Weekly/Monthly phone calls to the bloggers confirm that they are very actively planning future Foko workshops and expansions to other associations :

Patrick who has received connexion hours to lead workshops in Tamatave will bring friends from his Tour Guides associations;

Diana and Koloina have scheduled a meeting in Tananarive on November 23rd at Ankatso university's cybercafé;

Randy Donny is distributing connexion hours to the ESSVA students so they can connect outside their institute;

FBC - Fianarantsoa is coming very soon.....

 

* November 18th

 

More good news from Foko students at universities, Claire, Patricia and the others have all successfully passed their exams (they had exams from June to September and were very seriously not blogging). More bloggers are intending to join ICE Club weekly meetings to improve their English and be part of this great community now connected to BUEC from Tamatave.

Collaborations, discussions, brainstormings, (flirting?),...the members are having everyday conversations between each others to improve their blogging and find new innovative way to bring news from Madagascar. Videos and podcasts are the next step after the members know Flickr and Blogrolls.

FOKO blogging tutorials which are (now) frequently used by Malagasy bloggers was cited on http://www.epn-ressources.be/tutoriel-wordpress-50-tutoriels-wordpress-gratuits.

 

 

* November 10th

 

Facebook is now more crowded with Foko from Majunga and Tana mostly who interact on their blogs and now on their profiles. The Google Group has started to work pretty well too with many bloggers exchanging tips and meeting. Lomelle, the blogger fond of slam poetry, has published her podcast and is getting used to this new way of expressing her skills. Tahina is planning on recording ICE Club's shows broadcasted on Mada Radion on Saturday and with help of Foko will put the podcasts online.

 

 

* November 5th

 

Patrick took the time to teach Hanitra and Claire his collegues at BUEC Tamatave to put links and pictures on their blogs. This is a great step at Foko when « senior » bloggers have initiatives to teach to pass the knowledge and expand Foko network by themselves.

 

 

* November 4th

 

Lalatiana from ICE is coordinating their weekly publications for the English column at Lexpress de Madagascar and more FOKO bloggers will be featured on this national newspaper. Weekly submissions to the Mada English Journal are still sent to Mrs Rozenboom who is now willing to publish more than 2 articles per publication which means more money for connexion hours!

 

 

* November 1st

 

Surprise!! at ICE Club weekly meeting at EPP Rabearivelo in Analakely , Antananarivo. Foko 5th digital camera is given to Moma their president. Koloina and Nhari of course grabbed it and will get new footage of the show their hosting every sunday and which is broadcast on Malagasy National TV TVM : Teen Talk.

 

 

* October 23rd

 

Simplex an active supporter of Foko blog Club by sharing a lot of advices and comments on the blogs published an article on « how to Foko more Efficiently » followed by the cration of a Netvibes Foko universe. http://www.netvibes.com/foko

At the end of the E-bit, during a special foko session only for the bloggers, we explained the necessity of taking part more actively in Rising Voices activities by posting comments on other blogs, participating at the blog carnivals, etc. More and more bloggers have posted on the latest topic on Poverty Day last October 15th:

Michel, Chaffi, Solofo from ESSVA joined by Lomelle, Rondro from Majunga and finally Tahina and Andry from ICE.

 

http://yrha.wordpress.com/2008/10/15/journee-mondiale-de-la-pauvrete/

 

http://micramia.wordpress.com/2008/10/15/la-pauvrete/

 

http://raslmetal.wordpress.com/2008/10/10/journees-mondiales/

 

http://rambelosonrondro.wordpress.com/2008/10/26/la-lutte-contre-la-pauvrete/

 

http://as2coeur.wordpress.com/2008/11/07/ou-en-est-la-proprete/

 

 

 

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FBC 13:

 

Here are our blog updates on Rising Voices : What we learned from organizing a Barcamp

 

 

 

* october 22nd

 

C3LF, the very powerful and activist Open Source Developers community based in Fianarantsoa is now working Foko in our mission to promote and "speed" the vulgarization of ICT in Madagascar. Manda, the president, was impressed by our members skills and openness. We discussed on ways to expand our activities to the provinces when 200 Foko can join forces with 200 C3LF! Many similarities were discovered : most of the members are still students; we represent all regions of Madagascar ; both associations are globally supported : C3LF by the C3LD (Linux centers) from AUF - Agence Universitaire Francophone, Foko by the Rising Voices; so after Barcamp and E-bit, we are very motivated to build the foundations of a very strong new Open Community in Madagascar.

 

 

 

* october 17th : EBIT 12 at Palais des Sports et de la Culture Mahamasina, Antananarivo

 

7 am

 

Randy and ESSVA from Antsirabe were the first to arrive at Palais des Sports et de la Culture gates. Theo, Cunie and Patrick were waiting at the soccer stadium! Patricia and Diana helped them find their ways and join everybody in the huge conference room. ICE, Koloina, Tahina, Moonlight, Moma and Nhari were excited to finally meet Majunga and provinces bloggers. Club for UN bloggers joined the group wearing the t-shirts they got back in March. It was extraordinary meeting and having fun with all the Foko bloggers.

 

 

 

9.30 am

 

Morning sessions begin with.....5000 students rushing to our room! They were all from 6 to 14. The Open source developers side of the Palais des Sports et de la Culture Conference room was very quickly invaded by teens who wanted Software for Free. But Foko kids who are professionally trained in dealing with these kind of event (most of the members are studying Public relationships and communications!) improvised very well by showing the practical side of Citizen Media : « Your picture on the screen », « Spread your Voice »...

 

12 am

 

Exhausted but still very motivated, the bloggers went to visit the other exhibition at E-bit (this 12th edition is attended by a lot of potential employers). This time they took cameras and journalism skills with them interviewing everyone on the stands. It was also an opportunity to work together and learn from each others : ESSVA group teached Majunga photographers some video basics and Tamatave BUEC gave great tips in giving interviews to podcasers from Tana.

 

2.30 pm

 

Hery-Zo from AMUL took over the central screen and gave a presentation on web 2.0 which was live twitter by Nhari and Solofo. With only 2 internet connexion, the group who chose to teach blogging and email accounts was rapidly « attacked » by hundreds of teens. Everyone from the other association came to their rescue by wearing Foko t-shirts and diversifying the activities. It was then when we realized the great potentials of joigning forces to work together with open source associations.

 

5 pm

 

Tektonik is a very popular dance in Madagascar...we heard. Hundreds of teens heard about the « party at Quartier Libre » and showcased their moves. Momo who spent the day teaching DJying (ones of the many improvised activities) coordinated the sounds with the images when the Foko vidcasters used the giant screen to « live stream » the party.

 

Foko Stats for E-bit 12 :

 

10 e-mail accounts opened per hour

 

3 blogs opened per hour

 

1000 Foko stickers distributed

 

100 Foko t-shirts running errand in Palais des Sports (!)

 

1 great partnership sealed

 

15000 Antananarivo students know more about Open Source Softwares, Web 2.0, Citizen Media

 

35 Foko present

 

Hundreds of potentials bloggers waiting for Foko to schedule their workshop

 

 

 

* october 16th : Marathon Day!

 

We were invited by a CIDA (Canadian Internation Development Agency) intern Leyla Lardja who is supporting a project at IST (Institut Supérieur de Technologie) in Antananarivo to introduce Foko spirit and our great networking and empowerment project the FBC to the head of students association. Members of the Youth Entrepreneurial Club were interested in getting workshops and are preparing to host it at IST . Meggha their vice-president will be joigning Foko team at e-bit in order to «feel the spirit » and then spread it to her friends.

 

With all the taxi-brousse tickets sent to the provinces groups and t-shirts already ordered to promote Foko, it became an urgence to get all our logistical conditions approved by E-bit staff. Koloina from FBC-ICE and Nambinn from C3LF were invited to host a MBS daily radio show to introduce the event .

 

All participating associations met on the evening and to reach agreements , we made Goticom finalize the deal : 50 free staff badges, internet connexion, food...for this 12 hour with 15000 students visiting.

 

 

 

* october 12th :

 

Diana and Rondro were in charge of this free blogging workshop but only Lomelle andKoloina showed up. After this first try, we decided to give them more time to get used to managing a FBC and we are working on putting in place more well organized workshops.

 

 

 

* october 9th :

 

Second day of workshop in Antsirabe, Flickr and blogging are now well known by the future journalists. E-bit Youth event should be a great day for training so we are sending letters of invitation to get the kids in Antananarivo on October 17th.

 

Jaona who was supposed to open the marginalized youth workshop has moved to Fianarantsoa for work and is planning the next FBC_Fianar with C3LF.

 

 

 

* october 8th :

 

Trip to Antsirabe to open FBC 13 with ESSVA in Antsirabe. Randy Donné is going to be the new coordinator and promoting Citizen Media in this region. Jaona from Youth marginalized associations has left town for Fianarantsoa because of work and is planning to launch the next FBC-Fianar by the end of the year.

 

Malalatiana from Ambatolampy joined the FBC and will try to make some news from this city located between Antananarivo and Antsirabe. She will join the Afrigadget contributors (Afrigadget.com design website have invited Foko bloggers) in order to show the ingeniosity of this region.

 

 

 

* october 6th :

 

Meeting with E-bit people trying to figure out how a « Free Quarter » with all the great communities involved during Barcamp can take place in this kind of event (E-bit is a 12 year old Malagasy techonology fair). It looks like we are going to give workshops during Youth Day on Oct. 17th. Linux and other Open Source developers associations will join Foko to host a panel on « Free technology »

 

 

 

* october 5th :

 

Improvised workshop withTheo, Patrick and Rondro before they leave . Rondro will keep on blogging and help the 2 bloggers left in Majunga to pursue they « duty ». The most important part of the day was when Theo expressed his will to promote one of his many social activities : teaching English to handicapped people. We invited him to blog about his goal and promised him to raise awareness (and maybe funds) so he can make the 2-month-programm he wished for. Patrick also wanted to get specialized in Touristical blogging since he is a very active guide speaking fluently 4 languages in Tamatave. Flickr will be the best way for him to promote his activities and also we told him about the other great bloggers of Foko committed to tourism in Madagascar.

 

 

 

* october 4th :

 

8.30 am

 

2 teams are going to cover the presentations during theBarcamp event while the coordinators were very busy on logistics: the liveblogging (twitter, blog posts...) and the interviews (videos, podcast).Tamatave, Tana and Majunga bloggers had the opportunity to know each others well and also exchange tips on blogging or socializing.

 

12.30 am

 

Everyone went to Oktoberfest activities at Mahamasina invited by Lomelle (who is training at Gazette de la Grande Ile) for lunch

 

4.30 pm

 

End ofBarcamp which was very successful in terms of attendance, partneships and of course sharing!

 

 

 

* october 3rd : Family moment a Foko.

 

Pre-Barcamp meeting between the Foko. Diana is getting prepared for her big presentation on Baby Kamba, she is speaking first on Saturday morning. Blogging sessions and editing sessions are given by the trainers during this free internet evening at Ivotel.

 

Miscommunications...Rondro from Majunga has finally arrived to Tana to attend Barcamp but Antsa couldn’t make it. Her family thought it was a party. Theo and Patrick from Tamatave arrived at Ivotel during the preparations with.....Mavo ! The same lady who was taking care of Diana and Baby Kamba is actually Theo’s aunt.

 

 

 

* october 1st:

 

Eduardo Avila from Voces Bolivianas is in Antananarivo visiting the projects.

 

First meeting between Majunga bloggers, Diana , Lomelleand Nombana who started blogging back in March and produced Dominique the street kid video. We discussed on the different ways to start a stronger youth group . Diana is going to be in charge of the senior year group and planning once a month meeting.

 

Stéphane is finalizing the Barcamp preparations : Ivotel conference room, Moov technicians, catering, t-shirts, stickers, coordinatinng the participants...

 

 

 

* september 28th:

 

FBC 12.2 Joan had her first workshop with ICE group and encourage them to post comments and links. The second part of the workshop was on introducing the association work (radio broadcasting, publishing in newspaper,....)

 

Bloggers from the provinces are going to come to Antananarivo to attend the Barcamp and join the Foko summit !!!!! Thanks to Rising Voices and Foko founders donations Zouboon, Rondro, Patrick, Theophile and Jaona are going to meet their collegues in Tana.

 

 

 

* sept 26th

 

Pré-Barcamp meeting . Open Source Developers associations are amazed by FOKO spirit when we showed them Diana’s achievements. We are planning a partnership with c3lf to start a FBC in Fianarantsoa.

 

 

 

FBC 12:

 

Here are our blog updates on Rising Voices : Using Networking to enroll bloggers at FBC

 

 

 

* September 22th

 

 

 

First meeting of « Star bloggers »: Diana, Karenichia, Patricia. Diana had wonderful ideas for the FBC and offered her help in starting the Diego Suarez workshop since she is from there. Also she brought up the solution to identify the members with a FBC card (« like FBI’s » she said) to show to cybercafés .

 

Moov Malagasy first Internet connection provider will offer free connection during the Barcamp Madagascar event at Ivotel, Ambohidahy. on October 4th 2008.

 

 

 

* September 21th

 

 

 

First ICE English Club workshop with the help of David. This new group (Joan has discovered when googling « Pazzapa » - a Malagasy Reality Show - on internet and met them for the first time in person 4 hours after landing in Antananarivo on 18th) is going to blog actively in English from Antananarivo. 10 blogs were created http://dagome.wordpress.com, http://moonlightgirl.wordpress.com, http://faratiana.wordpress.com, http://mamadago.wordpress.com, http://thefinalandlastkill.wordpress.com, http://ravoz.wordpress.com, http://davidrichman.wordpress.com, http://andrydago.wordpress.com ,http://ariniaina.wordpress.com, http://gigantus.wordpress.com

 

 

 

* September 14-21st

 

 

 

Stéphane planned a trip to meet the BUEC students most of them were still on exams but Patrick and Théophile greeted everyone with a cheerful « Tonga Soa in Tamatave ».

 

Patricia (who came back safely from Brussels) has invited our guests to introduce blogging to students at Lycée Jules Ferry. The meeting went amazingly with a lot of interest from the teachers .Georgia and David from the Rising Voices arrived in Antananarivo. (again) this is a great honour for us at Foko.

 

Kristina a Malagasy blogger and an artist based in Minnesota has offered her support to Foko by giving an amount of the profits to FBC . She sells her bags onEtsy and few days from contacting us has already sent the first donations!

 

 

 

* September 12th

 

 

 

Armel Toky from Majunga called and confirmed Stéphane’s worries

 

« everyone is on vacation after their exams »

 

so we are planning to meet the few ones left and of course meet Toky who was looking after the students after Lindsay’s departure.

 

After few days of discussions, we made the decision to buy Asus Eee PC laptops to make the group less dependant of the cyber cafés and use wifi connections present in many places (Alliance Française de Majunga, for example). We already have 2 in hands and are to train the leader bloggers to use it effectively.

 

 

 

* September 6th

 

 

 

Jaona contacted Stéphane to schedule the Antsirabe meeting and their participation during the barcamp.

Foko has been selected as one of the testers for Ushahidi (soon to be launched) in Madagascar. We are very proud and are getting organized to introduce our network and of course FBC bloggers to the concept.

 

_____________________

 

 

 

 

 

FBC VACATIONS AND EXAM TIME

 

 

 

Here are our blog updates on Rising Voices : Foko Bloggers contribute to Madagascar English Journal

 

Foko Blog Club first Self-Evaluation

 

 

 

 

 

No workshops were scheduled during the month of August to leave more time to studends for vacations and exams. This little pause provided Foko team to rest and plan all the great projects we have in room for this autumn and Foko 1st year !

 

 

 

* August 29th

 

 

 

Patriciajust got her visa delivered to attend the Interdependance Day Conference. The process put all the team under an intense stress.

 

Joan and Stéphane are preparing the first Barcamp in Madagascar and are joined by journalists, techies and businesses on October 4th 2008. We are planning to get all the Foko members in Antananarivo to expose their work and get officially aknowledged by the community.

 

 

 

* August 18th

 

 

 

Patrick from Tamatave sent a mail to apologize for his group because of exams. He promised they will be ready for more FBC in mid-September and participation to the Blog Carnival.

 

Bi-weekly checking with FBC bloggers : Zouboon and Rondro are blogging regurlarly and in touch with the team asking constantly for tips and advices. Hery was very busy with his work and was unable to set the "special workwhop" for advanced blogging and webdesigning, we agreed on helping him for september (especially with the negociations with the cybercafé)

 

 

 

* August 11th

 

 

 

Mrs Annelie Rozenboom finally met Stéphane to give him the little stipends for the bloggers who submitted articles and got published on Foko's column of the Madagascar English Journal. 10 bloggers participated and this partnership is also a way for FBC to sustainability since the publications are weekly with 2 articles on the Foko column each time.

 

 

 

Foko was invited to the Namana serasera annual fundraising party and we participated with gifts and donations to their associations causes. This was an opportunity to meet our bloggers in a different context than the workhops and the fun they had on the pictures prove that these types of events should happen more often! Ravatorano who is a very active blogger from the community is working with us in adding more forumists to the network.

 

 

 

* August 8th

 

 

 

Nathalie Rodic from the ymex.org community invited Foko members to join a Focus Group on their chatroom to give their opinions on their organization. Unfortunately it was on short notice so we were unable to invite and get the troups to connect. We of course promised to be the first to join their next challenge and will be more involved in their community.

 

Harinjaka reported on his web 2.0 training at ankatso university with 20 developers who were the lucky Indian Ocean chosen ones to get this special training on web 2.0 tools.

 

from his blog : We all hope to use what we have learned for development of the country. Personally, I hope to strengthen the training capacity of the Foko Blog Club and the development of FOKO. So many thanks to the Francophonie !

 

 

 

* July 30th

 

 

 

Randy Donné a famous journalist from Les Nouvelles de Madagascar (and formerly Lexpress) got interested in Diana's work and expressed his appreciation of our initiative for the Foko Blog Club. We didn't hesitate to invite him to our workshops and he proposed to train his students from the ICM School of Antsirabe where he is teaching journalism. Majunga School of Journalism is also a part of the ICM network so we now training 20 future Malagasy journalists to the tools of Citizen Media and web 2.0 along withUN Club high schools associations in Antananarivo and English Club of Tamatave University.

 

Lova has made contact with another association working in Antsirabe for marginalized teenagers and working in the field of AIDS prevention. We are trying to coordinate the first workshop in Antsirabe with these new bloggers.

 

___________

 

 

 

FBC 11 :

 

 

 

Here are our blog updates on Rising Voices : Akory Tamatave - Hello Tamatave

 

 

 

* July 22th

 

 

 

Patrick reports :

 

(July 25th) Here is Ok, Stéphane was here in Tamatave with us last tuesday. It was great. Yesterday some of our English club member met Sondra: is the friend of Sara, and we talked much about their project and how can the English club get in Spotlight. It's sounds works out for us(English club). We already accepted to work with them. Also I try to have a meeting with my friends in English club this week end

 

(July18th) I’m telling you guys, It was very nice during our wonderful time together with Stéphane. And I di hope that he will come back soon here in Tamatave. We had very big problem before but after Stéphane’s visiting everything getting better. Now we had no more problem to publish our acticles. Ciao guy

 

 

Foko team andSpotlight Madagascar ( a young non-profit started by 2 former Peace Corps volunteers) have worked very hard together to promote the use of English and environmental activism in Tamatave's region. TheEnglish Club will now join the partnership. This special session was held to help the bloggers post their second and more articles. They are also recommended to read from the FBC community (right) and learn from their peers works.

 

 

 

* July 17th

 

Hery is still trying to find a local for his summer workshop where he plans to teach more on video editing and webdesigning. Since most of the groups are in vacation, we have more time to program the sessions for august and september. He already gathered the documentations and tutorials to help them build websites and edit videos.

 

 

 

* July 14th

 

 

 

Patricia's videohttp://club.foko-madagascar.org/?s=spotlight&x=0&y=0">Lake of shame won a prize at the 3rd population day contest from TakingITGlobal website ymex.org. She's now on their frontpage as a feature article and her work will be seen by youth all over the world. Stéphane also met the director of UNIC (United Nation Informational Center) to talk about FBC future projects with theUN Club kids.

 

 

 

* July 13th

 

 

 

Stéphane and Tantely met (and went clubbing .am I allowed to write this here?) after finalizing Foko Blog Club Malagasy legal papers in order to ease our work with more institutions in Madagascar.

 

 

 

* July 10th

 

 

 

Phone calls to Diana at the hospital brought little scares : Kamba had a convulsion attack which put everyone on alert for the night and an unsolicittated visit from an intrusive journalist was disapproved by Pr Clément. Let's remind here that only Diana was allowed by both Georgine (Kamba's mother) and Pr Clément to cover her story and take pictures. Of course it is quite paradoxal to "control" media so a press conference was officially announced by Pr Clément and will take place on Thursday

 

The press conference was attended by all the media from national TV to the press and of course radios at 11 am. No one mentioned Diana's speech on her work with Foko Blog Club and how she managed to bring attention to the cause to focus on the medical achievements which was the purpose of the meeting. The family left everyone heartbroken at the bus station when they decided to suddenly home go to Majunga.Diana is now going to lead FBC Majunga transfering all the great lessons she learned from her blogging at Befelatanana hospital during when taking care of kamba.

 

 

 

_____________________

 

 

 

FBC 10 :

 

Here are our blog updates on Rising Voices : FOKO in the heart (foko) of the Malagasy blogosphere

 

 

 

* June 27th

 

 

 

Diana finally announced that Baby Kamba was safe. After one week of many attempts to practice the final surgery and because Kamba was too weak, the surgeons finally succeed in this 8 hours very dangerous procedure. Dizains of bloggers sent mails and relayed the news few minutes after on their blogs.

 

Stephane was happy about his pupil Diana's progress in blogging and Citizen Media! After days of intensive stress when we made Diana got back home to rest a little and pass her exams at the School of Journalism, she became very independant and published daily updates on the baby with pictures, articles and even a podcast ! This is a very important step at FBC because 3 months ago Lindsay was worried about her students been scared of internet and even after Stephane's trip there in May, they still find blogging difficult. We know now that Diana is ready to pass the relay (she even figured out the best moment of the day to load pictures :

 

" slt tous le monde, là on tous a l'hopital tous les etoiles de Kamba sont là,la chambre est même trop petite

 

bref,c'est fini l'operation,il a plus le truc au milieu du front je vais essayer de vous envoier des photos car je sais maintenant comment les envoier plus vite (c'est le soir,le reseau est moins flou)

 

mille bizou ici on est super contente"

 

"Hi everyone! Everybody is at the hospital and Kamba stars are filling his tiny room. The operation is over, he doesnt have the thing on his fronthead anymore I will try to send you more pictures because now I know when to publish them (during evening and nights )"

 

 

 

Lova and Mialy were doing an amazing work in Budapest bringing our voices to our Global Voices friends. They had 2 panels with our bloggers work : The Rising Voices experience with Bolivia, Columbia and Kenya. The Rising VoicesMialy will blog us about it later. And the Cyclone Ivan intensive citizen media experience when videos and news from FBC contributors were relayed to the world. It was the very first time Malagasy webmasters and internauts heard about our blogging workshops and their incredible potentials. We tested the connexion in Tamatave and few minutes of Lova 's presentation was watched by the FBC floks, it made them very proud !

 

 

 

Stephane wanted to help the Tamatave guyz and finalize their training but also give them the tools and motivation they needed to stay with us and blog more. He met Patrick the head of the English Club who started his blog back in February. They planned a 3 days workshop :

 

1-Blog editing : to teach the basics to the new bloggers

 

2-Pictures and Podcasting and more blog publishing : to show them there were more than writings, they also appreciated the first comments (Joan took care of this).

 

3- Introduction to the blogosphere...which didn't happen because of technical problems at the cyber , you guesses right : Power outtage! But again it was another occasion to discuss about Foko and Citizen Media around a well deserved chinese noodle soup (Tamatave best dish) : http://theophilusman.wordpress.com/, http://hkambora.wordpress.com/, http://clairesttuburn.wordpress.com/, http://violance.wordpress.com, http://bodoundjan.wordpress.com, http://hanitra085.wordpress.com

 

 

 

* June 21th

 

 

 

Cyberfety on Foko Chatroom,Patricia and her friends showed up and got their chances at sharing their amazing Foko Blog Club experience to the Malagasy blogosphere who appreciated their activism, talents (in malagasy at least!) and of course the representation of Malagasy youth they. Patricia showcased a very strong personality and generosity (at only 16!)

 

 

 

* June 19th

 

 

 

Silo, a famous musician in Madagascar, invited the Foko bloggers in Tamatave to cover his very original show :Sans-Fil. With the help of the municipality and telecommunication sponsors (Orange Madagascar) He wanted to diffuse his shows live on internet. Of course the pictures will be online when the load shedding allow us to...

 

 

 

* June 15th

 

 

 

Bad news from Hery : the cybercafé won't lend us their room for free(it's normally 50$/hour internet connection not included)...We planned summer sessions for intensive web and technology teaching with the most motivated bloggers. We're still looking for solutions.

 

 

 

* June 14th

 

 

 

Stephane and Tantely connected to Skype to not talk about Foko ! These kind of moment are rare (because none of them have internet at home) and we enjoyed it very much.

 

 

 

* June 11th

 

 

 

Diana is having hard difficulties managing her time in Antananarivo. Patricia from FBC came by to see Kamba and offer their help to the family. This meeting with 3 "powerful" FBC bloggers is a good sign of the success of our work on the ground. We want more interactions between the bloggers without the coordinators interventions.

 

 

 

* June 06th

 

 

 

The web page to collect donations for Baby Kamba, Diana's cause was launched atzaza-vavy (a collectif of Malagasy blogging for infancy and women founded by foko coordinators). We chose this strategy to leave to Diana more time to only promote her actions and not to get involved in financial echues (which was not appropriate at her young age,17, and ethical as a future journalist)

 

 

 

_____________________

 

 

 

FBC 9 :

 

Here are our blog updates on Rising Voices : Congratulations Foko Blog Club Class of 2008 !

 

 

 

* May 30th (Foko 2.0!)

 

 

 

Foko Flickr account is now open to all Madagascar bloggers. Avylavitra's personal album is waiting for your comments, he was waiting for this occasion for months and thanks to his commitment to FBC, you'll see more about Malagasy lifestyle and the wonders of our country.

 

Diana and soonPatricia have their own Twitter account now. This micro-blogging platform is very practical for bloggers who don't have the time and money to frequently post on their blogs. We're hoping to expand this experience to more bloggers within the next months.

 

 

 

* May 29th

 

 

 

2 new bloggers http://tonkataly.wordpress.com/ and http://ysiastella.wordpress.com/ from Majunga AND PARTNERSHIP WITH MAJUNGA SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM is OFFICIAL!

 

M. Vita is the Director of the School where Lindsay Redifer teached photography and english classes and trained our first FBC with her 8 students. He was , which son Jelly is now helping logistically, was so impressed but our passion and the progress of our Foko network and accepted our offer to train more students to blogging. 3 blogs were opened during the improvised workshop where we distributed our (now very famous) signature t-shirts . Now that the class has finally received theur digital camera and connection hours, we're waiting for more news from Majunga!

 

 

 

* May 28th

 

 

 

Stéphane met Max, a retiring state officer, who is helping Diana helping Kamba family.They discussed on the next trip to Anatananarivo and the future expenses. Joan took last week-end to meet in person the Ottawa couple (friends of Max) who teamed with her raising more than 1000$ from the 3000$ needed for the operation. Malagasy blogosphere, webmasters and now journalists based in Madagascar are intensively relaying this cause.

 

 

 

* May 24th

 

 

 

Bloggers gathered to receive their prizes during a dinner sponsored by Foko and with the presence a blogger from the Diaspora who supported FBC from the beginning. The coordinators in place invited also the blogosphere to connect to the chatroom and support them virtually while everybody was busy enjoying their soda at Urban Café in Antananarivo. The Namana Serasera, our big brothers, were present and also brought gifts to the young bloggers!

 

 

 

* May 17th

 

 

 

Cylnice and Zouboon texts accepted by the Madagascar English Journal with this kind emails by Annelie Rozeboom :

 

Hello Joan,

 

I just finished to edit the articles. They were really cute. I love it when people from the street get interviewed about their lives.

 

Do you think it’s possible to send a picture of the taxi driver and the child? As they are very personal stories, it would be nice to have a picture,

 

Please let me know,

 

Thanks again,

Annelie

 

 

_____________________

 

 

 

FBC 8 :

 

 

 

Here are our blog updates on Rising Voices :

 

Backstage with the Foko coordinators in three Malagasy cities.

 

Lindsay Redifer, FOKO Blog Club’s First Vidcasts, the Majunga School of Journalism, the mini blogging contest, …

 

 

 

* May 10th :

 

 

 

Lindsay and Mialy met in Washington DC and are catching up on Foko Blog Clubs stories. Especially from Majunga where the future journalists are longing for their connection hours. Stéphane has made contact with Jelly from Majunga School of Journalism to train him in becoming the new FBC Majunga coordinator. His trip to Majunga is being planned by Foko at the moment (let us remind you guyz that Majunga is about 500km from Antananarivo and Stephane wants to make a 2-day trip by car...!!)

 

 

 

* May 7th :

 

 

 

Rondro article on Tromba selected for Madagascar English Journal. Annellie our contact is amazed by her maturity and writing skills and is waiting for new submissions on Foko special column everyone will have the chance to contribute and even non anglophone writers will be translted. Half of the money will go directly to Rondro in Majunga and the other half to her group all in connection hour. The Journal will send us a scan of our article in a very short time.

 

 

 

* May 5th :

 

 

 

From Christian (future Toamasina tutor trained by Stephane) :

 

SLT SLT!!!!

 

comment ca va, ny vao2 aty dia zay vao vita daholo ny blog ny ankizy aty.Mazoto be ireo nampianarina na dia efa tara kely aza 3 blogs aloha no natao fa alefa tsikeliky .ireto avy ny blog vita:

 

Hi everybody! how is everything? I have great news for you all, the youth here are very motivated and we teached blogging to 3 of them. We know we've started very slowly but you'll see more coming from Toamasina!

 

Zida01.wordpress.com, Layshiyuu.wordpress.com, Ledhada.wordpress.com

 

Patrick the head of the local English Club is excited and will very soon join the bloggers squad!

 

 

 

* May 3rd :

 

 

 

The amazing movement to support Diana's personal initiative to help the little baby from Majunga is one of Malagasy blogosphere first try to team together. The chatroom scheduled on May 3rd was attented by 5 bloggers who will be committed full-time on this task. We chose to let Diana decide on the strategies and just give her our advices and material support. Of course Diana will keep on posting about the ups and downs of her ground actions.

 

 

 

* April 28th

 

 

 

Tears of Joy? during the mini-blogging contest we receive great reactions from the winners but we didn't predict that this kind of emulation could bring deceptions and maybe demotivation...

 

_____________________

 

 

 

FBC 7 :

 

Here are our blog updates on Rising Voices :From simple blogger to citizen journalist, We do whatever it takes

 

 

 

* April 26th 2008

 

 

 

Karenichia and Patie were responsibles of the FBC workshop! They brought 4 new bloggers and will teach the basics to these Guiding groups from Antananarivo.We already know them from the Club for UN video and they're from the capitale's most prestigious high-schools like Lycée Jules Ferry and Lycée Rabearivelo. http://tintine.wordpress.com/ -http://witched.wordpress.com/">http://witched.wordpress.com/ - http://andovahin.wordpress.com/ - http://naydou.wordpress.com/

 

Lindsay Redifer is leaving Madagascar this month so all the FBC membres and FOKO team celebrated her departure by interviewing her and giving her little souvenires from M/car. What she's accomplished was really phenomenal and her love and dedication for Malagasy people will always be in our minds.

 

 

 

* April 20th 2008

 

 

 

A very good day for Foko Blog Club as more than 6 bloggers reached the 6 minimum posts to enter our mini-blogging contest. Karenichia, Pati, Avylavitra, Lomelle, Diana, Rondro and Poupoune posted the most interesting articles and pictures. Let's not forget about the other members from Toamasina, Majunga and Tananarive who are doing great too.

 

 

 

* April 15th 2008

 

 

 

Lomelle, Rondro, Diana, Zouboom, MielManja, Cylnice, Jombilo from Majunga surprised us with dizains of new posts on their brand new blogs. Lindsay who is back up north has done an amazing jog helping them ! Many topics we don't find among the pro bloggers were written and what is most surprising?? Is that most of them are trilingual! FromMalagasy to English to French, we see Madagascar from a new and different perspective. The posts are now categorized on our del.i.cious page.

 

 

 

*

 

 

* April 13th 2008

 

The deadline is approaching, The video aren't uploaded yet, panic !Patie: Rakotomalala Patricia and Nombana: Rasolofonirina Nombana are the participants. They took 2 days to take the videos in downtown Antananarivo. (we mentioned earlier that they had to prepare a mini-scenario on their issue) The post-production work was done 70% by themselves, they recorded their voices to fit the podcast with the images (amazing voices by the way). There were of course the problems of loading which took us a lot of networking to find fast and reliable internet connection. it took...4hours...for both videos. You can find the videos here :

 

 

 

 

Patricia produces : ANKARIHARY - the Lake of Shame

 

 

 

 

Nombana Produces “DOMINIQUE, SAKAIZAN’NY LALANA”**

 

 

 

* April 5rd 2008

 

 

 

Message from Stéphane :

 

Pati and Nombana were diligently listening to Lindsay's video taking lessons downtown Antananarivo. They took multiple videos from their subjects and are very excited to learn about video editing (scheduled on April 9th with Hery). It is very interesting to be a reporter but you encounter many dangers too. I'll send you more photos and videos from our adventures.

 

Hery has been working with Joan (online) to prepare the video editing and ...the very painful part of the workshop = the uploads....

 

 

 

*

 

 

* April 3rd 2008

 

Lindsay from Mahajanga and Poupoune from Toamasina are Teknet in Antananarivo meeting Stéphane and Hery. [ note :

 

o We'll post regularly our updates since there is a lot going on around the FBC]

 

 

 

* April 1st 2008

 

Message from Lindsay (Mahajanga) :**

 

We got cut off from our connection yesterday, so we just developed some story ideas and a couple students went to get interviews. Saltouna, our Commorrian student, is talking to some people working to supply our neighboring islands with clothing and food. Jelly, our crime reporter, is writing about the lack of sellers in the new market due to high rates for table space. Roza, our mid-wife, is working on an article about her experiences working with new mothers in the hospital. We'll get online whenever we can. The students have online accounts now, thanks to the grant, so that makes it a lot easier to get the work done.

 

 

 

CPO students have already prepared their mini-scenarii (for the Video Contest). Also there is a huge pressure for the FBC Contest we launched on February (when the minimum submission is to write 6 posts) which is ending on April 26th. Avylavitra, Karenichia, Pati and Poupoune are now posting one article per day (or 2 days) and are improving on the autonomy and skills levels.

 

FBC members seem to enjoy more and more the use of Flickr. The Foko album became the best way for coordinators to stay in touch and of course where they can post spontaneous comments on each others' work. With new pictures from Toamasina (online tutoring works very well!) from Poupoune, we're considering to give this plate-form more accessibility and ...space!

 

 

 

* March 31st 2008

 

 

 

Hery was summoned by his UNIC boss (UN Informational Center) to start working on the Film your Issue Contest ! It is also the last step to officialize FOKO's partnership with the UNIC network !!!! (they host the CPO=Club for UN associations weekly meetings)

 

Thanks to the hard work of Hery and Stéphane, FBC workshops can extend to new high-schools, other provinces, more activities...

 

 

 

_____________________

 

 

 

FBC 6 :

 

Here are our blog updates on Rising Voices :When members take control of the FBC

 

 

 

*

 

 

* March 22th, 2008

 

Tamatave's team managed very well on their own. As usual the power went off many times in town and 2 of the new bloggers coulnd't finalize their posts. Faliniaina's address and email was sent by texting (Foko team is exchanging at least 2 phone texts a day between North America and Madagascar)!

 

Lindsay in Mahajanga and her students from the School of Journalism were also starting at the same time! Since it was an introduction to blogging, they only managed to open Lomelle's blog but next week we'll get more news and stories from FBC-Mahajanga during the 2nd workshop.

 

FBC-Tananarive's workshop was an occasion forAvylavitra to talk about his Flickr and Youtube experience. Then everyone had the task to post comments and write a new article.It was a very light but fun workshop because of the Easter holidays.

 

 

 

* March 19th, 2008

 

The Film Issue Contest invitation was announced on wednesday's Club for UN meeting (CPO students meet Hery every week at UNIC for their extr-scholar activities). The bloggers from CPO Jules Ferry immediatly accepted the challenge (they were the ones who took the Open Doors at Jules Ferry video) but we are still waiting for more to join. The first task for next week is to write a very light scenario of the video.

 

 

 

* March 14th, 2008

 

 

 

The cameras went to the FBC-CPO for their first take at videos. Many pictures were published from the Open Doors at Jules Ferry event and Hery and Stéphane helped a little on the final montage but they managed to update their blog on their own.

 

Lindsay from FBC-Mahajanga found a webdesigner friend,Toky to help her start the workshop with 3 students of the School of Journalism.

 

 

 

* March 7th, 2008

 

 

 

Poupoune our 1st blogger from FBC-Tamatave went in Majunga on vacation. The cities are 800km apart and it was a chance for us to learrn more about our new friends from FBC-Mahajanga. They shared their difficulties to get internet connexion from the provinces and scheduled together the 1st workshop for March 22nd.

 

 

 

_____________________

 

 

 

FBC 5 :

 

Here is our blog updates on Rising Voices :Planting trees, Cyclone Ivan and FOKO

 

New Voices from the Provinces and High School Students

 

*

 

 

* March, 1st 2008

 

Hery from Namana Serasera Association promised to bring us his special class. The Workshop was a total success ! 10 teenagers came from Antananarivo's high schools associations

 

As soon as we told them about the FBC Contest, the posts were written very quickly !

 

 

 

* February, 24rd 2008

 

 

 

Stéphane went to Tamatave to introduce the FBC at Orange Internet Cafe where we previously putposters with the help of friends in town.

 

Despite the black-outs, he succeeded in training 4 new bloggers (poupoune, ianluc, lafatra and Christian)

 

* February, 23rd 2008

 

 

 

Andry took care of Antananarivo's FBC when the few bloggers who braved the heavy rain.

 

The blogosphere was connected to the chatroom and formed a commentors committee for the Blog Contest we also launched.

 

 

 

* February, 19rd 2008

 

 

 

Cyclone IVAN caused damages and destructions, the bloggers were very fast to post pictures on Flickr and alert everyone. It also helped us evaluate the potentiality of our Media Citizen network

 

 

 

* February, 9rd 2008

 

 

 

Andranovelona, Tree Planting Event

 

This is an annual tree planting event for the Namana Serasera Association, they invited Stephane and Tantely to join the troops and recommand them to take videos and pictures. Everybody enjoyed their time !

 

 

 

_____________________

 

 

 

FBC 4 :

 

Here are our blog updates on Rising Voices :Bringing Malagasy forumists to blogging

 

 

 

* January, 26th 2008

 

4 bloggers from the precedent editions were present : Avylavitra, Sasa, FcCandy and RmStephy

 

They learned to post the photos they took during the holidays on their blogs and also to comment on each others blogs. Avylavitra met the team the week after to learn how to post on Flickr and Youtube.

 

and 2 new additions : Nombana and Rina **

 

They learned to open a Wordpress blog and write their first post. (we also give our members the option to keep their blog private and in these we didn't record Nombana and Rina's addresses)

 

Hery a member of Namana Serasera association took the initiatives to promote the FBC at his workplace : the UNIC (UN informational Center) and enrolled high-school students for the next FBC.

 

 

 

_____________________

 

 

 

The first edition happened on October 20th 2007, it was the day the Springboks won the Rugby World Cup ! This experience made us realize the potential of Media Citizen in Madagascar. Second edition went on November 24th 2007, Teknet, which is the most equipped cybercafe, offered us their support to initiate 10 new bloggers. Namana Serasera Association joined us on the project at this moment and they were anguishly waiting for the Rising Voices grants annoucement in December !! Stephane, Andry and Tantely were already ready for action ..