Moyo on Monday

Matthew very kindly agreed to take me out on a Monday evening … to Moyo near the Zoo in Johannesburg.  OK, it was a little quiet on a Monday evening but the food was good and the guy with the guitar did not bother us too often.  I had the flattened chicken and Matthew had an animal tail.

I was in Johannesburg for the Betavine Social Exchange workshop.  I was keen to hear what people thought about the idea and get some valuable input – I was not disappointed.  I spent the morning at the Sangonet offices in downtown Johannesburg.

Matthew de Gale on Sangonet

Johannesburg from Sangonet Boardroom

Then we had lunch in the News Cafe at Joburg Theatre before the workshop began at 2pm in the Penthouse room.  The workshop was followed at 6pm by the first Netsquared event in Johannesburg.  I met some very interesting people and really enjoyed both events.

Joburg Theatre

We had around 20 NGOs represented at the workshop and I got a lot of valuable input.   I will summarise some of it here.

BSX workshop in action

Ideas:

• open discussions to mobile internet
• find local discussions / solutions
• link to mobile active directory of resources
• put BSX link on Prodder
• local language support
• put case studies on Sangonet, Mobile Active etc.
• list of recommended OS developers / past performance
• assistance in finding pre-existing solutions would be valuable to NGOs

Issues:

• who owns the BSX projects?
• need an MoU betweeen parties
• quick response needed to initial ideas
• accountability
• who gets credit if idea flies?
• solutions need to be costed
• NGOs like face to face / voice contact
• cost of operation of solution

More on the Cape Town workshop soon.