My absence from this blog has me questioning my identity as a blogger. I’ve wanted to write for most of March but failed to do so. Work, specifically two projects, has occupied most of my time (including weekends). I’m a very disorganized blogger, even under the best of circumstances, so a busy month has translated into a silent blog.
But, but. The projects are so interesting and I’m excited at the year ahead. I will share information on one now and leave the second for another post.
I discovered BloggingGhana (BloGh), a community of bloggers and social media users who cover various issues about Ghana, when I started blogging back in 2010. I joined the group and long story short, this year I’m leading one of its projects. Ghana Decides is a social media elections project. Ghanaians will go to the polls this year to elect a new president and over 230 members of parliament. The project will cover the elections via the use of blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and other social media platforms.
The proportion of Ghanaians who use social media is rather low. So project activities will include interactions with offline groups so that we can reach as many Ghanaians as possible. Our target groups include the youth, organizations that serve the physically challenged, prisoners, and those who reside in severely deprived and excluded areas. The project seeks to ensure a plurality of voices in the online election-related conversation.
Ghana Decides was launched in late March and we’ve embarked on a voter registration campaign, which will run concurrently with the national biometric registration exercise. iRegistered encourages Ghanaians to go out and register to vote. You can follow the campaign on Twitter at #iRegistered.
You can also follow the conversation at #GhanaDecides throughout the year.
I will provide more updates throughout the year. This explains the increased number of political tweets that are broadcasted from my Twitter account!
Press Release on Ghana Decides
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March is gone, April is here. I will not bother with a wrap-up of what I read nor will I specify any plans for April. I’ll just go with the flow and see how I do. I do hope to read and blog more.
Enjoy your reading in April!
April 1, 2012 at 2:20 am
Wow! That sounds like an awesome project! I, for one, do not mind the increase in political tweets
April 1, 2012 at 12:06 pm
that sounds like a wonderful project kinna I think once you get back in the groove of blogging be easy I find it easy to put off to then the days go by ,all the best stu
April 1, 2012 at 7:04 pm
This is a fantastic idea & one I will follow with interest whether here or on Twitter, You must be really proud & with credit & reason. Wow, congrats.
April 1, 2012 at 8:27 pm
Hi Kinna
I always enjoy your posts, whether they come quickly or with big gaps. Hope you continue blogging, at a pace that suits your life. Ghana Decides sounds fantastic! It’s good that you are reaching out to other groups who wouldn’t be online so much as well. Hope it goes well! Look forward to hearing about the second project, either tomorrow or next month
April 2, 2012 at 4:27 pm
Welcome back, Kinna. Waiting to know how best I can help with the Ghana Decides project. We are all in for a better Ghana Agenda!
April 7, 2012 at 3:42 pm
Kinna, Your new project is very exciting! I enjoy your blog immensely and hope that you will choose to continue writing. Frequency is not important. Sincerely, Cathy Green
April 11, 2012 at 4:42 pm
That sounds like terrifically important and absorbing work: no wonder you haven’t had the energy to hang around here too. Good luck with everything, and I look forward to reading your posts whenever they come along!
April 17, 2012 at 6:03 pm
Thanks for sharing about your project. It sounds very interesting and rewarding. Best of luck with it.