We are pleased to announce that, Sprig, the multi-authored green blog we run in out spare time, was awarded a runner-up prize at the South African Blog Awards. We won this award last year and are pleased to again be included in the top three.
Indigenous Knowledge Technology Conference 2011
We are attending and presenting at the Indigenous Knowledge Technology Conference this November in Windhoek. The programme is looking great and we’re really looking forward to a number of papers. Check out the conference theme below to get a feel for what its all about.
CONFERENCE THEME
Indigenous knowledge systems differ fundamentally from the knowledge systems that underlie technology development. Numerous initiatives aim to enable remote diverse communities to share their wisdom and practical know-how with conventional digital technologies but often overlook the very systems that they use to organize and make sense of the world. Further, many indigenous communities, especially those in rural places, have few opportunities to appropriate new technologies emerging in ubiquitous computing, such as social networks, flickr, virtual and augmented realities. To design digital infrastructures for currently unserved knowledge systems we must account for the transformations that occur as technology interacts with the ways of knowing, doing and being that constitute indigenous knowledge systems.
Highway Africa New Media Awards
A couple of weeks ago I went down to the Highway Africa conference in Cape Town, which was excellent. The theme of the conference was African Media and Global Sustainability Challenge and sessions looked at citizen journalism, Internet security, media innovation and the use of social media in the newsroom.
Apart from the fascinating seminars I attended, I’d also been short-listed for the Highway Africa New Media Awards and am happy to report that I came runner-up in the NGO category for my work with the Ulwazi Programme, with impressive globe-shaped trophy as proof!
UKZN Special Collections Open Day
We have an ongoing relationship with the University of KwaZulu-Natal, of which we are both alumni. We encourage anyone in the KZN or Durban area to attend this one day event, which based on the programme (downloadable HERE), should prove very interesting.
UKZN Special Collections (Alan Paton Centre and Struggle Archives, Campbell Collections, Gandhi-Luthuli Documentation Centre and Centre for African Literary Studies) invites you to its open day entitled:
More Than A Library: UKZN Special Collections’ Role in Archival & Heritage Preservation and Research.
The UKZN Special Collections Open Day is an invitation to the general public to interact with the archival spaces attached to the University. Presentations will touch briefly on the history and activities of these collections, with Prof John Aitchison, Dr Vukile Khumalo and Aziz Hassim (frequenters, supporters and contributing makers of these collections) offering up pieces of their perspectives as informed by these collections. The day will round off with an opportunity to engage more deeply with each collection; through free interaction with staff members, perusal of displays and a tour of the Campbell Collections.
Date: Thursday 6 October 2011
Time: 9H00-16H00
Venue: Campbell Collections, 220 Gladys Mazibuko (former Marriott Road), Berea
RSVP: Karen Ijumba – 031 260 1712 or Ijumba@ukzn.ac.za