Ushahidi the crisis crowdsourcing platform developed in Africa is receiving  solid media coverage.

After being featured on CNN, Ushahidi made it to another influential American media company The New York Times.

The site collected user-generated cellphone reports of riots, stranded refugees, rapes and deaths and plotted them on a map, using the locations given by informants. It collected more testimony — which is what ushahidi means in Swahili — with greater rapidity than any reporter or election monitor.

Bill Gates recently took a trip to South Africa and Kenya where he surveyed the work of his foundation: the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

During the trip he first visited a clinic in Durban South Africa, which works to improve the quality  of water and sanitation. Then he visited Bophelo Pele a male circumcision centre.

In Kenya he went to the small town of Eldoret where he learnt about M-Pesa the successful mobile transfer service, ending the trip in the town of Kabiyet where he learnt all about dairy farming.

Quoting Mr Gates post at The Gates Notes concerning the trip

Youtube seems to have rolled out its new interface to selected Youtube users who use Google Chrome. The new Youtube Interface is pretty cool, and I actually have to say I am a fan.

If you can not view this interface, it may be because you are using a browser other than Google Chrome.

Pictures are below

Mammaput is a interesting idea which is still on the drawing board.  The idea is to create a crowd-sourced directory of eateries in Nigeria.

This has potential since no big one exists in Nigeria, so there is most probably a market for such a product.

The team behind Mammaput has not released much information concerning the finished product except the information which can be found at their front-page.

Crowdfund is a venture capitalist start-up from South Africa which has made a small impact on the African cyberspace. Crowdfund promises to invest in local South African entrepreneurs by raising money through a community based model.

The idea in their own words is that

1. 1000 people get together and invest R1,000+ each by pooling the money into the Crowdfund.

Uche Eze, the founder of Bellanaija a blog which is can be described as a  TMZ for Nigeria, was recently featured on Oprah.

She was interviewed via Skype for a show called “Beauty Around the World”

Ms. Eche said the following about the incidence

At the beginning of the year, I was having a conversation with my best friend – we were discussing our aspirations for the year and beyond. I can’t remember the specifics of the earlier part of the conversation but I remember the end. I said something along the lines of “…I really want to be on Oprah!…that’s the ultimate” I remember him saying “Well, you better hurry up because she is retiring her show next year”. So the conversation ended and life went on.

African Scholar is a website we found out about from Africa Unchained.  The aim of African Scholar is to

provide information on scholarships available to African Students, colleges and universities, test preparation, entry level job and internship opportunities, as well as opportunities to interact with admissions specialists, scholarships administrators and other Africanstudents around the world.

The goal is to help parents and students navigate through the sometimes complicated admissions process and give Africans an opportunity to capitalize on opportunities available to them around the world.

Starcomm is an innovative Nigerian telecommunications company. According to Nigerian blogger Loy Okezie they have launched a location tracking service called Star Tracker. He stated

If you ever need to track your friends location within Nigeria via your mobile phone, Starcomms has just made it easier. Thanks to the availability of GPS-enabled phones among other factors, the LBS (location-based services) market is set to boom in Nigeria.

Google continues its journey into the African tech market by launching Google Maps in over 30 Sub-Sahara African countries. Quoting their Press release

As of today new detailed maps of 30 African cities and towns are accessible on Google Maps through any web browser or via Google Maps for mobile on data enabled handsets.  The new service means that Google Maps users will now be able to search online maps, look up businesses, advertise for free via Google Maps Local Business Centre, create their own maps and even check locations while they’re on the move.

Qiqima is a microblogging platform from Southern Africa. They like Kukurooku and Gatorpeeps are a custom made microblogging platform, which is commendable because it is innovative.

At Qiqima pronounced Kikima you are able to

• Send a 150 character microblogging post
• Use SMS to create an account
• Use SMS to post a status update

TEDxAmsterdam: Mark Kamau from TEDxAmsterdam on Vimeo.

Naijapulse is a microblogging site from Nigeria, which launched a few months ago. As with all microblogging services, you are encouraged to update your profile using small pulses, which at maximum are 140 characters.

Naijapulse was founded by a group called Naijand which specializes in Nigerian web 2.0 technology. They did an average job.

Personally I found the idea of behind naijapulse very brilliant and innovative.

Some basic features include

• Post your blog feeds to your profile
• Set up an account using Open-ID
• Send updates to your twitter or facebook accounts

We haven’t confirmed this, but respected SEO blog and social media blog Social Media Today has written a post stating that Google Adsense is now available in Kenyan shillings. I quote

Kenyan bloggers and website owners are now pleased to note that they can receive their Google Adsense earnings in Kenyan Shillings.

This was not the case previously and many website owners had difficulty banking the foreign currency(Dollar or Euros) cheques with their local banks, Further ,payment would be delayed for up to 21 working days from the date of receipt with Banks charging commissions on the cheques.

I was am a big fan of Twyka; the Kenyan microblogging platform until I could not take it any longer. I am done with Twyka until they fix the severe problems they have with their community, and interface.

The relationship started of wonderful enough, we were one of the first people who profiled Twyka just a few hours after their launch. We felt that Twyka was the one we were waiting for; the Kenyan microblogging platform which will allow us to forge a new connection with microbloggers in the region.

Ugandan Flag

A sad incident is taking place in Kampala, Uganda. Riots occurred when the president of Uganda had a misunderstanding with the Baganda King, one of the majority tribes in central Uganda. The situation got out of hand and now we have riots in Kampala. To read an article about the whole incident click here, or on Aljazeera here.

At this point details coming in are still sketchy at best, but you can read articles from Ugandan content sites like The Observer and The Monitor. You could also follow the following twitter accounts

The official website of the MTN Africa Cup of Nations (Ghana 2008) tournament, was hacked. It was done reportedly by fans claiming to be Moroccans. They allegedly were avenging the defeat of Morocco by the Black Stars of Ghana, during the African cup of nations tournament.

The hackers replaced the background of the website with a man clad in red hooded clothes and clutching the symbol of the Star of David.

In response, the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) of Ghana 2008, has asked the programmers in charge to put more effort to protect the site. In  light to what can be said to be a totally embarrassing and humiliating incident.