Ghana ranks 35th in the world in terms of its download speed with a speed of 7.97 Megabytes per second. This finding sounds encouraging giving the fact that Internet penetration has become a roadblock for enterprises in the country. With fast Internet speed provided by Internet Service Providers (ISP) such as Vodafone, the nation will have access to information faster. With time, let’s hope the Internet cost and penetration will also go in Ghana’s favor as well.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a computer application system by which machines are empowered to mimic the actions and behaviour of human beings. Being the first of its kind in Ghana, the main idea behind the establishment of the laboratory, is to provide a hands-on experience for students in the various tertiary institutions offering courses in this area of study. The main purpose of the laboratory will be to provide support and enhance the learning skills as well as the professional development of students, lecturers and anyone interested in the field of artificial intelligence.

The Pascal2 Network of Excellence will be conducting a series of boot camps on Artificial Intelligence research areas. Five scholarships have already been offered to the universities in Ghana to enable them to participate in a boot camp to take place in Marseille, France in July 2010. The research area to be addressed is machine learning which is an exciting field of study under AI where researchers search for and describe patterns based on a given set of data, in the hope that this would help them make better forecasts.

The boot camp would be facilitated by seasoned researchers affiliated to Pascal 2 Network of Excellence in Europe. Recorded versions of the camp will form part of  video lectures also sponsored by the Network. These will be made available online at videolectures.net website.

The Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre for Excellence in ICT is committed to ensure that this laboratory will serve as a hub for learning and also for innovative research work in the field of artificial intelligence.

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Last week, FIFA admitted sales of tickets in African had not been the most encouraging. Jerome Valcke said only 40,000 tickets have been sold in countries in the continent outside of South Africa. A FIFA representative  said that only 11,300 people in Africa made ticket purchases, out of a total of 230,000 foreign fans.

It is quite obvious what factors caused the poor sales in Africa- Internet. Tickets were to be purchased online with electronic cards. I expected FIFA to have done its research and realized in advance that bandwidth was yet to hit majority of households in Africa. Alternatively I think FIFA could have taken advantage of other payment options such as the Safaricom‘s M-pesa, Zain‘s ZAP, MTN‘s Mobile Money or e-tranzact. I can boldly say these channels would have provided FIFA with more revenue than it has already basketed. It is good news however that over 2.5 million tickets have been sold out of 3 million available for the World Cup, which begins in a couple of days. Too bed not too many of  these tickets were bought by Africans.

Estelle Akofio-Sowah the Country Lead for Google in Ghana was very excited when the Google Maps for Ghana was launched. Finally the Silicon Valley giant  has launched its Maps for Ghana. Detailed maps of Accra and Kumasi, can be now be accessed on Google Maps. I am guessing most software developer who have been waiting for this announcement can now breather a sigh of relief. With Google Maps, Ghanaians can now make searches for up to date online maps, look up local businesses as well as create their own maps.

Estelle believes with Google Maps more accurate, representative local information can greatly improve the breadth of information available about a given area and in turn can help efforts to bolster tourism and business investment. Ironically this announcement comes a few days after Accra was named second worst place to live in the entire world by  Lonely Planet. The launch of Google Maps in Accra and Kumasi could possibly help salvage the situation. Now 31 other African countries aside Ghana can boast of Google Maps.

To make updates to the Maps on Google, anyone with Internet access can update using the Google Map Maker tool. This is a tool which allows users to locate, draw, label and provide attributes for local map features, such as roads, parks, or rivers, turning local users into “citizen cartographers. Businesses (including those without websites) in Ghana can hang on this tool to advertize the location of their businesses on the Map.

The interesting thing about Google Maps is that it is also accessible via mobile and can be downloaded for free form http://www.google.com/mobile/maps/.

Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets.Google’s targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia.

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Ghanaians woke up last week to see many Glo brands all over the city. This gave me the impression that they were going to keep their word and launch early next month as mentioned by the Minister of Communications, Haruna Iddrissu. Reports coming from reliable sources seem to however suggest that the March Milestone might just be a little bit hard for Mike Adenuga’s company to meet.

Ghanaian have been sitting at the edges of their seats expecting to experience the offerings of the sixth network in the country, a few I must say are disappointed with the operations of the leading mobile company in Nigeria. Glo has promised mouth watering products and services among which include high speed Internet via fibre optic cable. I guess these promises will take some time before Ghanaian begin to experience them fully. Until then we would have to be content with the super-star bill boards that line our streets.

Looking at the fact that Glo is yet to put up a website to represent its Ghanaian presence, I am forced to think Glo’s launch is a bit further than we may think. Currently the Globacom’s interest is in the  execution of  the Glo CAF Awards and setting up additional cell sites so it can claim nationwide coverage from launch. Untill Glo comes alive, Ghanaians would just have to be content with the superstar billboards for now!

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Douglas Hines a computer scientist and former Bell Labs engineer unveiled a $7,000 talking female robot in Las Vegas at the Adult Entertainment Expo last year. Hines had spent over three  years on this sex machine. Roxxxy is a sex-robot powered by a computer under her soft silicon skin, she uses voice-recognition and speech-synthesis software to talk and answer questions posed by her “boyfriends”.

As if that is not enough, sexy Roxxy comes in five different personalities, she could be the frigid kind of lady some men might be interested in , or a nympho for the men who like it crazy in the bedroom. The robots body is made from hypoallergenic silicone and molded over a rigid skeleton. She would need to be moved by her companion since she lacks the ability to move. But as a consolation she can pose any natural position.

The bad news is that Roxxxy will not be available to service its customers as yet. Potential customers can however pre-order through Hine’s website TrueCompanion. You would need to hurry because already thousands of men (and women) have placed orders for this wonderful doll.

I am wondering if such robots will be a tool that African men would love to purchase for their bedrooms. I would to get my hands on the ethnic background of the customers. In  culturally intensive societies such as those in Africa where cooking and other household chores are the roles of the female partners.

The other argument would have to do with whether or not the doll will be able to be a perfect substitute for the real woman when it comes to sex?

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It is very amazing nowadays how newly launched products get into the African space just a few days after its release. This goes a long way to show how gradually the world is getting flat. On Wednesday Apple launched its much talked-about i-pad tablet through the company’s co-founder Steve Jobs. The i-pad is  a device larger in size but similar in design to Apple’s popular i-Phone. It has a 9.7-inch touch screen and weighs 1.5 pounds, with Wi-Fi and Blue-tooth connectivity built in, a virtual keypad  and an option to use AT&T’s 3G data network, although this technology hard and soft are believed to be the miracle of 2010, I am convinced that Ghanaians will have a tough time utilizing this item.

It is not what the ordinary Ghanaian can afford

Apple is generally known to be company that manufactures machines that are on the high-end, and the Apple tablet is no exception. The cheapest price tag on the i-pad $499 and could even sell for as much as $1000. In a country where the average annual salary is around $2,200, it will be difficult for ordinary citizens of this third world country to write a whole month’s cheque for a tablet.

Internet connectivity is a problem in Ghana

The i-pad is designed to run on the internet via wi-fi. It will be able to connect to Apple’s popular iTunes software and online multimedia store, as well as the newly unveiled electronic bookstore, called iBooks. Users can also choose an option that will allow them to connect via the AT&T cellular data network. In a country where internet availability is not as ubiquitous and as cheap as those available in other parts of the word, this device might prove useless.

Ghana is yet to catch up

It is amazing to see the number of Ghanaians online creating blogs and on social media platforms such as twitter and Facebook, but the numbers are not as encouraging as they are supposed to be. Out of over 24 million Ghanaians less than 1 million have access to the internet. Not too many people know about YouTube, Blogging and video streaming. I believe it will take some time before these new trends eat into Ghanaians until then the i-pad might be a big leap

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Moderator

After this exercise of question submissions, there will be a voting process to select the top couple of questions to be answered  by President Barack Obama in a YouTube interview from the White House, which will also be broadcast live on Citizentube.

Over the past couple of months the government of Ghana has taken certain steps to reach out to the people of Ghana. I can think about the Facebook attempt by the Honorable Zita as one of the remarkable ones. I still think a few steps were skipped in that area, and I still believe that the internet is a very powerful too to use to reach out more to the citizenry of every country including Ghana.

The White House in US has in the past especially in Obama’s tenure, come up with very attractive ways of using technology to reach to it own people. It has released an i-phone application that could be used by users to watch broadcasts. The White House blog too has been there to report on happenings and operations in the presidency. I think these are steps any president can copy in order to “talk” to its people better

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photo Credit: techcrunch.com

The Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton on Friday was emphatic on the need for governments and other political bodies to stay out of online collaborators way. To the 4 freedoms that already exist in the US; Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Worship, Freedom From Want, Freedom From Fear, she added the Freedom to connect (and be connected to).

This comes in the wake of attacks on Google’s infrastructure in China and last year. Not only Google was affected, but also at least twenty other large companies from a wide range of businesses–including the Internet, finance, technology, media and chemical sectors–have been similarly targeted. The Chinese government is known for its interference in the use of the web in China. Google was forced to censor its services on Google.cn, in a very controverisial case. It has now reverted to the uncensored package for the Chinese Internet users. Google has gone further to threaten, it will leave the asian shores of China should the Chinese powers ask it to censor its services.

Currently in Ghana, we are far away from the interference of government forces in the social media and collaborative platforms. Provided no one breaks the law i.e. nudity, internet fraud, libel etc I suggest the group of internet consumers be allowed to collaborate without boundaries. I would want to commend the present and past administrations in Ghana for allowing the freedom we enjoy offline to be moved online as well. Efforts have been made by the Ministry of Information to connect more to Ghanaians on Facebook, That is another step in the right direction. But is the Minister really reachable on that channel?

I must admit I first heard of the Haiti disaster in Facebook. The input of the Internet and Mobile technology towards donation effort cannot be ruled out. They have played a major role in the dissemination of information and the gathering of funds to help the thousands who have been rendered homeless.

These are but a few of the ways web and mobile helped in the dissemination of information and the collection of relief funds from every corner of the world.

1. Obama came up with an initiative to brong all mobile networks in the US together so raise funds towards the Haiti disaster. So far a total amount of more than $5 million has been realized. Mobile phone users send “HAITI” to a short code 90999 and by doing so they pay an amount of $10 towards this cause
2. The Doctors without borders have also put up a donation bowl on its website. To donate you can access their site here Doctors Without Borders
3. World Vision and UNICEF too receive donations on their websites; World Vision and Unicef
4. Singers and superstars also used the power of the web to do what thet could do to help the situation. Haitian-American rapper Wyclef Jean receives donations via both web and mobile. To make donation via mobile those in Haiti can Text “Yele” to 501501 to donate $5 towards the relief efforts. All others can go to the Yele foundations website. Tiger woods has already made a payment of $3 million to  the foundation.
5. Google has put a link on its home page leading people to a page telling them more about how they can make payments towards the Haiti situation.

I am pretty sure  Ghanaians can also learn from the compassion the world is showing to Haiti. I think we should not be left out. Mobile networks can set-up a short code for mobile users in Ghana to send text messages to at premium costs. I think it is worth trying, and soon.