If you’re in downtown Nairobi before the 4th of August, be sure to pop in to the Barber Q Hair Studio and get yourself a free head massage. The studio is on the 2nd Floor of El-Roi Plaza, close to the Odeon Cinema. This is just one example of the thousands of snippets of information that are at the heart of Mocality, a free-to-list, hyper-local mobile business directory in Nairobi, Kenya.

Mocality offers a free business suite of tools to all listed businesses, such as the ability to upload customer mobile numbers into the Mocality platform, a free mobile website and 400 free SMSes each month to message their customers about new products and promotions.

Mocality’s CEO Stefan Magdalinksi sees Mocality as becoming “the largest, most successful, business directory in sub-Saharan Africa by expanding the market via internet technology to include millions of businesses that previously never appeared in a directory, offline or online”.  [read more]

I’ve been on the Mo Ibrahim Governance for Development in Africa (GDIA) Fellowship at the University of London for the past two months, but, trust me, I’ve kept a close tab on events in Nigeria. As I was putting finishing touches to my research, news broke that President Goodluck Jonathan had reversed his decision to withdraw Nigeria from international football for two years. At first, I said: “Another Yar’Adua is born!” The late President Yar’Adua was popularly known for changing his mind every second.But, on a second thought, I was pleased that Jonathan changed his decision. His spokesman, Mr. Ima Niboro, said the president decided to reverse the decision because of the opinions expressed by a broad range of Nigerians on the social networking website, facebook. Why was I pleased? It helped my research! Rather than condemn the president, I would rather say “good move”. It is always good to listen to public opinion on some issues – public debate could be very useful. Read more

The fifth annual Digital Citizen’s Indaba (DCI) [www.dcindaba.com], held on July 7 at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, will draw together citizens, advocates, bloggers and activists to discuss how new media can revolutionise development work and give a voice to the unheard or silenced. This year’s theme, Africa’s underdevelopment: Digital Citizens. Talk Back, will explore citizen media and the exploitation of natural resources, disasters, climate change and mega events. The DCI is a project of the Highway Africa Conference www.highwayafrica.com which takes place on July 5 and 6. Our theme will be explored through three topical panels entitled, ‘Natural Resource Exploitation’, ‘Citizen Media on Disasters and Climate Change’, and ‘Mega Events—Whose Voices are Heard?’. The panels will involve activists who use new media to make their voices heard, or those who play a supporting role in development work. The Indaba has attracted the attention of major international figures like Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who will give the closing addresses for both DCI and Highway Africa. Read more