Barcamp Madagascar

The first BarCamp Madagascar took place last Saturday, October 4th, in the capital city of Antanarivo with great success. One of the organizers, (@jogany on Twitter) is guestblogging for us, sharing some of her thoughts and impressions on the BarCamp Madagascar that we hope will inspire our discussions next Saturday:

Starting a Barcamp was an opportunity to showcase our skills and abilities to the world in the field of technology but also to prove to ourselves, as the very active but isolated Malagasy tech community, that we are taking part in the development of our country. Since Madagascar is not going to be connected with high-speed internet until early 2009, the best place to promote and hire participants for an “unconference” was elsewhere than online.

So we had a “one-by-one” approach and took the time to meet personally each participant before the Big Day to discuss with them the challenges and expectations we were all hoping to get from the Barcamp. Within few days, the list extenteded itself from activist open source developers “hiding” in the cosy town of Fianarantsoa, to a blogger from Majunga who used pictures taken from a mobile phone and a podcast to give medical treatment to a baby, to high-school students training for the 2009 programers Olympics in Bulgary and to a brilliant and altruistic developer who has been working alone and looking for help on a Malagasy MySpell project for 3 years.

We asked everyone to bring their geeky t-shirts and sandwiches to this free stage. With the internet connection offered by Madagascar’sfirst internet service provider, we expected the discussions to be very heated starting by the reactions this type of sponsorship would spark. The Web 2.0, a concept that has been studied through its technical aspects but also by demonstrating new projects focused on social networking, is still very unknown in a country where only 20,000 people have access to the internet and 72% are living on 1$ a day. Educating and Developing were some of the topics largely discussed by the participants who never hesitated to take control of a panel. Trying to find solutions together to lower the costly .mg domain name so that locals can really appropriate/afford it; elaborate partnerships between globally acclaimed translators and Linux developers to make an authentic Malagasy dictionary on technology words; joining forces to create a 3rd voice between the governement and powerful businesses and get involved in the drafting of Malagasy internet regulation laws (on infrastructures and content).

Later, we asked the attendees their thoughts on this memorable day, and one of the answers that will definitely motivate us to plan a second Barcamp Madagascar was:

With only 18,000 spots at Malagasy universities available for 30,000 youths, it is a necessity to start sharing as openly and freely as possible so everyone will know that a new generation is ready to take over the country.

Following BarCamp Madagascar

-BarCamp Madagascar Twitter summary: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=Barcamp_MDG
-Flickr Tag: Barcamp_MDG
-BlipTV: Foko, Barcamp_MDG
-BarCamp Madagascar Wiki: http://www.barcamp-madagascar.net/doku.php
-BarCamp Madagascar Blog: http://www.barcamp-madagascar.net/antananarivo

Participants & Sessions

- Diana Chamia: Blogging made one of my dreams come true : helping the others.
- Avylavitra: How to use Citizen Media to promote democracy in Madagascar?
- Pierre Maury: Bibliothèque Electronique Malgache
- Jentilisa: Global Voices Online Malagasy
- Tosoa Sifaka: Let’s speak Lojban
- Pati: Attending GIYS, 2008. Brussels with Rising Voices
- Hery-Zo Rakotondramanana: web 2.0 applications
- Mahefa Randimbiason - Malagasy Spell Checker
- Robe: Hi Tao, new Malagasy community news gates
- Fy: Eboons.com, a new way to use social networking
- Njaka: Salon Ebit, Journées de la Jeunesse
- Ariel Elyah - How to promote your website all over the internet?
- Joan Razafimaharo: What about starting Creative Commons Madagascar?

Open Source Developers :
- AMUL, Malagasy Association of Open Softwares
http://www.amul.mg
- C3LF, Fiananrantsoa Open Softwares developers
c…@univ-fianar.mg
- Madagascar au Temps TIC
http://www.oi-mada.org
- Madagascar NTIC
http://www.madagascar-ntic.org/

Dina Randrianarivo (AMUL)- web 2.0 tools
Haja Ramboasalama (AMUL)- IXP, Why not?
Aina Rakotovao (C3LF) - Sécurité sous Linux
Ratombotsoa Marc Fiderana (C3LF) - Why use Open Softwares?
Ravonimanantsoa Ndaohialy Manda-vy (C3LF)- GPL
Tombomora Chancelin (C3LF)- Nessus
Randriamahefa nomenjanahary (C3LF)- MONO Dot NET under Linux
Rakotondranaivo Haja (C3LF)- Managing an environment with Open Source
Tools
Tahina Raselison (Madagascar au Temps TIC)- Madagascar’s participation
to Youth developers Olympias 2009

contest

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Foko Blog Club

on October 4, 2008

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It was so long that the meeting begins,from morning till now.But the something very interesting is,there is a contest for the children who study at the high- school.It is from Madagascar au temps TIC.This is a contest who will begins the fefteenth of this month October.The first tipe is the 15 October,and the second tipe is the 18 October and they will give you the date of the final.

At the first tipe,they take 80 candidats ,but before that,you must to pay the fee 5,000ariary at NETBOX Ankadifotsy.

At the second tipe,they take 24 candidats from the first.I means,the someone who succed during the first contest.

At the end,they give the gifts for the 8 candidats who win.So,if you are interesting by this contest,I advice you to visit the site web:www.oi-mada.mg.

So,I think that ,that enougth for today’s news from the BARCAMP,today 4th October 2008.It is 16:47 p.m.

NHARI ,from FOKOBLOG CLUB.

The first session in the afternoon

Published

Foko Blog Club

on October 4, 2008

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Mahefa is taking his part to present his project about ”la langue malgache”. This site is focussing on on helping a learner to know easily how to write exactly the right word in one language. that is myspell. But the probleme is that he doesn’t have enough time for it because it’s takes too much time to explaine it. In one word it’s an ortograph corrector.

The next one is Rahajarimanana takes his part to present his project about managing logiciel ” libre” He want to share his skill to another person.

Next one is about eboons_net society presented by Fy.In this site we can have our own pages, we can create group and why not commenting. In your own pages you can have tchat in a group and also you can order or buy something directly. How wonderful site is ” le cocept web 2.0”

Now it is time for Hery Zo expose about developper in the web 2.0. Lot of persons are really iterested to discover the chalange between a several sites that we can find here in this web 2.0, for instance: Single-sign-on and Open ID, API, Widgets, and also Modules pluging” Some ressource that he gave: www.mashable.com, opensourcecms.com,….At least he really want to invite some person who is interested to visit these sites, so www.telomiova.org ( e_learning to Madagascar) or www. amul.mg

Haja come back again to present ”DNS”. he explaine about its subdivision. From the roots we can have a lots ofsubdivision such as int, com, edu, mg…. We have a very big advantages to manage ”mg” because the is still large free spaces.

Raberimanana is the president of Madagascar au temp tic from Paris, he also never let his chance to present their project.

Tahina is the president here in Madagascar au temp tic want to promote Madagascar olymiad. He said that Madagascar is still among of the contry poor, and if we really want to develop, he said that we have to focus on science and technologie and also the young iterest. That is the reason why the plained to send some students from Madagascar to assist the international Olympiad of informatic 2009 and it will take a place in Bulgarie