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ISSUE NO 58 USEFUL WEBSITES AND DISCUSSION LISTS

ONE PERSON’S CHOICE: TOM KWANYA, THE KENYAN NETWATCH

The Internet Technology, though a recent occurrence in the lives of Africans, has gained untold tempo as many organizations and individuals continually "get connected". While it is true that some of our people are yet to make their first telephone calls, many more have embraced the Internet as a lifestyle. Consequently, there are thousands of web sites I would have loved to feature. However, my hands are tied by the limitations of time and space. Nonetheless, I’ll consider a few of the many that I cannot afford to leave out.

Beginning from home, The East African Standard Online Edition (http://www.eastandard.net) cannot go unmentioned. A web site of a daily newspaper in Kenya, it teems with timely and properly researched news and information. The web site is just simple enough to download easily over our slow and unreliable links. Broken only by the left-hand side red border, the web site is quite legible and well categorized. From special features on topical issues affecting the Kenyan, Financial News, Horoscopes, Social information to African News, I find rich content that quenches my yearning for useful information. I visit this web site on a daily basis. It’s a real pain on those few occasions it’s off-line.

I keep myself informed technologically through Africa Online (http://www.africaonline.com) and ITWeb (http://www.itweb.co.za) web sites. Africa has many web sites on culture and wildlife but very little on technology. These two web sites help to link us with the global information society and place us on the superhighway. There are lots of resources as far as technology is concerned on these two.

Uganda (http://www.uganda.co.ug) is another lovely web site I frequent. "The Pearl of Africa" has a touching history that attracts both African and foreigner alike. With pictures as old as 100 years and news as timely as now, the blend is admirable. You can read about the ancient Kingdoms of Buganda, Ankole and Bunyoro Kitara to mention but a few. It not only keeps our roots in the past but also propels us to the future with a vision and determination.

The only Kenyan portal, Kenyaweb (http://www.kenyaweb.com) is Kenya’s home on the web. You want to know anything Kenyan? You won’t miss it on Kenyaweb, simple and clear with our country’s colors of red, black, green and white.

I have no time to discuss but I’ll mention
Kelele.com (http://www.kelele.com),
Nation Media Group (http://www.nationaudio.com),
Jabali Afrika (http://www.jabali-afrika.com) and
Jaluo.kom (http://www.jaluo.com).
Go and look at them for yourselves!

Tom Kwanya is editor of The Kenyan Netwatch, a pioneer Internet magazine in Kenya, published by Raytom Information Services Ltd. with the sole objective of equipping Kenyans with the information they need to make them better users of and contributors to the Internet.

SA LAUNCHES FIRST INTERNET SPORTS BETTING SITE

SportsBet.co.za recently became SA’s first bookmaking operation to offer sports betting through the internet. Predicted by Merrill Lynch to reach an astonishing £68 billion by 2015, as the largest and fastest growing part of the booming online gaming business, internet sports betting has already become a major industry in countries such as the UK and Australia.

(source: http://www.boot.co.za/news/may01/sports4.asp )

LASTMINUTE.COM TEAMS UP WITH IAFRICA

International travel and leisure e-commerce player lastminute.com’s SA site, lastminute.co.za, have teamed up with leading portal iAfrica.com, to bring SA consumers what it claims are "the best in last minute travel deals this side of the equator".

(source: http://www.boot.co.za/news/may01/lastminute4.asp)

DISA OFFERS ONLINE HISTORIC SOUTH AFRICAN ACADEMIC JOURNALS

Hosted by the University of Natal, the DISA project aims "to make accessible to scholars and researchers world-wide, South African material of high socio-political interest which would otherwise be difficult to locate and use." As part of that effort, DISA has recently announced the online availability of three South African journals: Clarion Call (1982-91), Pro Veritae (1962-77), and Sas (1956-90). The journals page also lists a large number of additional titles that will be made available in the future. These include many that had been banned by the apartheid government and that were printed and distributed underground. The three journals presently available may be browsed and read by issue as digital page images. Word searching and subject searching are also planned for future versions of the site. Once completed, this archive will undoubtedly serve as an invaluable resource for scholars of twentieth-century South Africa.

http://disa.nu.ac.za

(source: GigaLaw.com Weekly Update, April 14, 2001 via TAD Newsletter)

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