We have launched our discussion forum. Now it will be easy for people to join in discussions here. Now dadamac.net can gradually become an active online space for the growing Dadamac community.

To join in all you have to do is go to the discussion forum link choose the discussion topic that interests you and add any comments you like. You can reach the discussion forum link from any page; it is under the heading "get involved".

The idea of dadamac.net is that is should be an "online home/office/clubroom/study-space/whatever-we-need" for the growing dadamac community (which welcomes newcomers). We started off by "preparing the reception area" i.e. the home page and such like (this area needs more work - fewer words, more pictures -  but is well under way).

Now we are ready to start graduallly inviting people in - probably people we already know to start with - simply because they already have shared interests and onging shared conversations. As the conversations develop other people, newcomers to dadamac, may decide to join in. At first we'll do this througn the blogs and comments. Later we will start to have more structured discussions as well, and we'll put the word out through our "usual channels" to let people know what the topics will be.  Gradually we will also move our various Special Interest Groups over into the dadamac.net space  - but not yet. For now we will leave them where they are accustomed to meet.

Some of the ogoing conversations that may move here are:

When Dadamac started to have regular UK-Nigeria team meetings we used Yahoo. (It was the natural choice, because people in the team already knew Yahoo and had Yahoo IDs.) Then we had problems with the reliability of Yahoo and moved over to Skype instead. (By then some people were using - or trying to use - Skype for transnational voice chats, so the interface was not completely unfamiliar.) This week, when we gathered at our various locations ready for our online session, Skype had a glitch, which seriously interupted the business of the meeting. That glitch prompts this consideration of what we had chosen for our meetings, and why, and what plan we should have to be better prepared for future glitches.

We started with Yahoo for our online meetings, because most of our people in Africa had Yahoo IDs. This is because cyber cafes offer Yahoo. A Yahoo email address is a natural starting point for people using email in Africa. Learning to use instant messaging is a fairly natural follow up. Many people prefer it to emails.

This week we had the first planning and practice meeting for Dadamac Day (DD).  The DD team, Chollom and Alheri (in Nigeria) and Nikki and Pam (in UK), e-met through one of Dadamac's usual typed Skype conferences.

Date, time and place.

The date and time are agreed -Saturday November 7th 10:00 GMT, 11:00 Nigerian time, 13:00 East Africa Time.

In rural Nigeria when you need new furniture you don't go online or pop  round to the nearest Ikea for a flat-pack. You employ a local carpenter to buy some wood and make the furniture that you need.

The Knowledge Resource Centre was in need of furniture it could call its own, and this was mentioned at a recent UK-Nigeria team meeting.

Although Dadamac Foundation is a tiny charity, which does not have anyone to raise new funds at the moment, it was able to send £100 to help. When the money arrived the local carpenter was able to set to work, and already he has made two large new tables and installed them in the Knowledge Resource Centre.

These photos were taken by Yakubu, one of the staff members who has just finished presenting the first C4C (Cameras for Communication) course. We are hoping that these photos mark the start of a virtuous circle of communicaton. The hope is that:

Thanks to VSO volunteer Cicely for this news from our partner organisation Fantsuam foundation.

This week Fantsuam has started work on three new construction projects at its Bayan Loco compound in Kafanchan, Kaduna State.

FOOD STORE

Fantsuam partner ICAP will be providing food items as part of its nutritional support programme for people living with HIV/AIDS.  The new store will ensure that supplies are kept fresh and secure for maximum benefits to recipients.  It is also intended that the store will serve as a pilot for grain storage programmes to help agricultural microfinance clients make better use of seasonal fluctuations by storing produce when prices are high, rather than selling all when the market is depressed.

The results are out for the Africa Rural Connect competition and the winners are..... Zittnet! Many thanks to all who voted, and encouraged others to vote. We also understand and respect the views of those who have issues about these kind of competitions and will not vote in them. Some of these issues are discussed later.

The details

Back to the results. It was a close call. Last week “we” (ie our friends at Zittnet plus their supporters) were struggling for second place, and the leaders were way out ahead. Then, amazingly, we managed to start closing the gap. By the final day, with just over five hours to go we were nearing 250 votes and were only 5 votes behind the leaders - but they seemed to be getting another new vote for everyone we managed to get. It was hard to know where any more votes might come from - but people kept spreading the word and the vital votes kept coming in, and we just made it:

• 3rd Prize!! - Soymilk production expansion in Ghana (138 endorsements)Wins $1,000

We have been asked to explain the relationship between Dadamac Foundation and Dadamac Limited. It is causing some confusion for people who think it must be like the relationship between, for instance, Ford and the Ford Foundation or Microsoft and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (i.e step one: become a great commercial success; step two: share the resulting financial wealth through philanthropy). Dadamac is very different. We didn't start on the commercial side and then create the foundation. We started with our voluntary work and are now at the start of building our commercial operation (Dadamac Limited). We don't have financial wealth; our wealth is harder to quantify. We have a considerable amount of social capital and a wealth of knowledge and information, built up through years of voluntary work.

The various faces of Dadamac

We are creating an online presence under one brand name – Dadamac – which brings together

Thanks to Andrius Kulikauskas and Minciu Sodas, Pamela McLean is usually “at home” (on the Internet) once a month, logged in for an hour, and wondering if any of her contacts will arrive for a catch-up chat (or to discuss some topic that has been agreed before-hand). The chats are held in the Minciu Sodas Worknets chatroom.This means that anyone with an Internet connection can join in – no need to log-in with some special ID, and no need to download any extra software as might be needed for Yahoo or Skype.

Meeting times

Meetings are held on the first Thursday of the month starting 13:00 Nigerian time, 15:00 Kenyan time, 13:00 British Summer time, 12:00 GMT.  The meeting is nominally for an hour, but sometimes goes on much longer. It all depends who turns up. Unfortunately the timing is rather early for American contacts, but some of our contacts in East Africa come online from cyber cafes, and it is best if they can go home before dark.

A reminder usually goes out via the LearningFromEachOther yahoo group, which is a Minciu Sodas group that Pam leads. Sometimes people send an email beforehand to say they will be dropping in, and mentioning a special interest.

Much of what Dadamac does (and has been doing) is scattered around the Internet.  It will   gradually connect up with the website: rather like activities in scattered annexes gradually moving into a new main building.

Identity and Community

Developing a website is a bit like decorating a room, or buying an outfit for a special occasion. It raises  questions about identity, about how we see  ourselves, what we want other people to recognise about us, and how we want to relate to those people.. Somethings just “are” Dadamac and some things just “aren't” - but what are those things and how do we get a website to reflect them?

A recent exchange illustrated this point:
Question: What about search engines? How well will they find the site?
Answer: But this site isn't for search engines – it's for people!

Good point. Dadamac has grown the way it has through people knowing people. It is  built on trust and relationships, collaboration, shared vision – all that kind of thing. Now, more  people are wanting to know what we are doing and how they can get involved. The website is an easy way for them to start finding out more about us, how things fit together, and  ways they might join in.