African Voices in the Global Media Space: the 14th Highway Africa Media Conference

The 14th Highway Africa Conference takes place between 4th and 7th July 2010 at Rhodes University, Eastern Cape, South Africa. During this event Highway Africa will recognise media practitioners in various key categories. This event is touted as the largest gathering of journalists in Africa.

The event, which has become one of the hallmarks of new media achievement in Africa highlights the power of the media among communities especially as a way of promoting open and free expression that boosts growth and development.

Upcoming event to address issues of intra-African connectivity

The Internet Society in conjunction with various partners will be holding an event in Nairobi which seeks to bring together African Internet Exchange Point operators, ISPs, policy makers, regulators and professionals to deliberate on strategies to improve connectivity between and within African countries.

$2 Million Laptop Grant for Kenyan University Students

Kenya's ICT Board, the main implementation agency under the Ministry of Information & Communication has lined up US$ 2 Million which will go towards granting about 15,500 university students the opportunity to own their own personal laptop.

This initiative, which is supported under the World Bank's KTCIP programme will go a long way towards increasing the awareness, application and opportunities for ICT in the education sector.

Students will be required to apply for the grant via the ICT Board web-based portal and will be served on a first-come first-serve basis with further verification and authentication being performed by the laptop vendor and the university to which the student belongs.

Kudos to the ICT Board for yet another ground-breaking initiative!