Internet through good and bad #osloexpl #utoya

This afternoon and evening I have been online nonstop. I am Swedish, and todays events in Oslo and on Utöya have hit close to home.

Right now I am in a state of chock, staying updated mainly through twitter (hashtags #osloexpl for Norwegian and international tweets, #oslobomb for swedish tweets, and #utoya for all).

I am astounded that not more than 10-20 minutes of the bombing I knew of it through Twitter. But today is not the time to talk about Internet, but to spend on more important things in life. My heart goes out to Norway.

Chale Wote: Taking offline online

Last weekend a street art festival took place in Accra. I attended quite excited and walked up and down High street several times trying to ensure I wouldn't miss a thing. 

In the end it was not the best street art festival I have encountered, but being unprecedented (at least to my knowledge) in Accra's history, it was astounding!

I was even more so impressed and excited over the echoes about the festival online. It seems that everyone with a camera (I had unfortunately left mine at the office..) posted it online. 

So without further ado, read/see from Chale Wote online here: 

• Organizers
• ACCRAdotAit
• Eventinfo on Facebook
• Latest Twitter updates
• Blogs
• Critical Point
• Holli's ramblings (with a quite critical viewpoint that I don't particularly agree with)
• Kajsa H.A. (Another Swede that although she is in Sweden waiting to give birth to her first child can't stop posting about Ghana)
• Circumspecte
• Tagoe Blogger
• Photographers
• Nana Kofi Acquah
• Francis Kokoroko
• Gerard Nartey
• Kwesi Black
• Gary Al-Smith
• Emmanuel Bobbie

Over 1 million Facebook users in Ghana

Just last week Ghana passed 1 million Facebook users. For a country with close to 25 million people it might not sound that much. But taking into account the lack of home computers and how relatively expensive internet is - then it is astounding. Check out Socialbakers.com for more Ghana Facebook statistics.

It is an exciting time for Internet in Ghana for Facebook. And not just Facebook. Looking at Alexa ratings for Ghana (although not completely accurate, they at least give us a good sense of direction) Facebook might be the most popular site in Ghana (even surpassing Google!), but there are other social media sites that have a lot of Ghanaian internet traffic, such as:

11. Blogger
12. Twitter
13. BusinessGhana.com
16. LinkedIn
28. WordPress
65. Joomla (! an open source content management system)
66. Flickr

It seems a lot of people are actually looking for business opportunities online, with BusinessGhana and LinkedIn so highly rated.

The blogs (Blogger and Wordpress) might just as well be professional, but since there is only one Ghanaian blog portal where unfortunately not that many people have registered, there is much to be learnt about Ghanaian bloggers. I just registered today, do it you too - click here

Just what the future holds for Internet in Ghana I won't just guess (not yet anyway), but I will keep checking, keep trying to find the milestones and keep you updated. Wish me luck or better yet - drop a comment with tips of a great article, blog, someone to follow on Twitter or whatever it may be!