Ethelcofie’s Thought-osphere

So once in a while i come across a website i really think needs improvement and i usually talk ,blog or rant about the issues it has .

My intention in all this is not to show that the developers didnt do a good job , I am just saying there is a lot of room for improvement .

There are a number sites on my radar at the moment

• The Ghana Ministry of Agriculture website (Open in FireFox)Thanks Kwabena for bringing it to my attention.
• The African Union Website . I blogged about the usability issues of this website earlier this year .
• The BarCamp Africa UK website (a shameless plug for me as i am one of the organizers and we use a wiki at the moment and looking to migrate to website next year )

Instead of writting a blog post everytime i see websites that are not what they should be , I propose we do something about it .

The Plan:I am seeking web developers,designers and usability consultants who will give thier skills pro bono(free) to consult on and even help in house teams to improve or even rebuild these websites .

Also if you are a web developer,designer or usability consultant and wish to donate your skills to improve these website .please contact me at ethel@ethelcofie.com.

Trust that little voice in your head that says “Wouldn’t it be interesting if…” ~ Duane Michals

I always have ideas floating around head and most of them i forget and others  i realise i  might never get the chance and time to do any of these so please feel free to take and ran with any of these ideas as you will….

A Female mentoring portal – A portal of females categorized according to career sectors or any additional

catogories to help match mentors and mentees(borne out my realising that i have never had a female mentor )

An ideas exchange portal or group where creative ideas are presented and interested parties can pick and work on

ideas(preference for a group though)

A tool that allows me to aggregate my calender from my phone and various calender into one place

will add to this list and when i remember the rest untill next time

After BarCamp Africa in the US and BarCamp Diaspora also in US.

I think there was a sense from those of us on this side of the pond that we also need a BarCamp Africa in the UK .

Of course there will never  be enough events that will bring together a group of talented entrepreneurs, technologist, charities, engineers, designers, bloggers, artists, with a passion for African development.

So a tweet , a retweet ,a couple of emails back and forth and an organizers meeting later we are on course for an inspiring and action oriented BarCampAfrica UK on the 7th of November 2009 .

Ps.  The Next Organisers meeting is in secondlife ooo! check us out we are making use of all technological avenues open to us .

Find out more about BarCampAfrica UK and register on http://barcampafrica.com/uk

Untill the Next Post see you later

Got sent this email by a friend, quite funny

PCMCIA: People Can’t Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms

ISDN: It Still Does Nothing

APPLE: Arrogance Produces Profit-Losing Entity

SCSI: System Can’t See It

DOS: Defective Operating System

BASIC: Bill’s Attempt to Seize Industry Control

IBM: I Blame Microsoft DEC: Do Expect Cuts

CD-ROM: Consumer Device – Rendered Obsolete in Months

OS/2: Obsolete Soon, Too.

WWW: World Wide Wait

MACINTOSH: Most Applications Crash; If Not, The Operating System Hangs

PENTIUM: Produces Erroneous Numbers Thru Incorrect Understanding of Mathematics

AMIGA: A Merely Insignificant Game Addiction

LISP: Lots of Infuriating & Silly Parentheses

MIPS: Meaningless Indication of Processor Speed

WINDOWS: Will Install Needless Data On Whole System

MICROSOFT: Most Intelligent Customers Realize Our Software Only Fools Teenagers *[not a microsoft hater but its funny all the same ]

RISC: Reduced Into Silly Code