Today I’d like to announce a new technology news site for Africa, called African Signals (www.africansignals.com). It’s a place where I will be interviewing technologists around the world who are doing work in and for Africa. You’ll also see walkthroughs of new products and hear of upcoming events.
This first episode is where I stumble all over myself trying to do a simple African Signals intro (video) and also an interview with Mike Stopforth (audio) from Afrigator.com.
If you know someone to interview or would like to be interviewed, want to let people know of upcoming events, or any other news – let me know via the African Signals contact form.
I’ve learned a couple important facts about myself in the process of putting together African Signals. First, it needs to be about the people I’m interviewing and the products, not me – since I don’t have that compelling of an on-air presence. Second, doing video is a pain in the rear, but that it’s good to stretch myself into unfamiliar areas.
I need to give a big thanks to Jason Hawkins for putting together the intro sequence and doing the first video shoot. He’s an amazing video and tech guy, that I highly recommend to everyone. He’s also a CSS and XHTML wizard for anyone interested in having a website created. I can’t promise that all the video will be of this quality, especially while I’m on the road.
[Fair warning: this is my first time doing anything like this and it will probably be a little rough in the beginning…]
April 13, 2007 at 1:43 pm
This is first of it’s kind…congratulations!
April 13, 2007 at 1:53 pm
Congrats Hash,
It was getting increasing difficult for me to keep mum. Btw, i love the name for the podcasts “African Signals” Very very cool. I will be turning the spotlight on you when in Arusha (This shall serve as fair warning)
April 13, 2007 at 2:29 pm
Thanks. It’s a little strange being “out on the web” in video. But, I think it’s something we’ll all have to grapple with sooner or later. People are opening up more and more to online video, especially in the developed world.
My biggest challenge here is going to be making this work for dial-up. I need to figure out how to make the file sizes small enough to be realistic for those with slower connections, at the same time I need to make sure it can be hear and seen. It’s not an easy technology problem to solve, especially when you’re brand new to it.
April 13, 2007 at 8:28 pm
I hope you don’t worry too much about the rough quality of podcasts, and just go about doing them. I’ve been really impressed by how much they bring to the plate to the blogs I follow in a number of different areas. And what do you mean about your online presence being not much?! It’s great to see you. You’ve got a fan base already.
It’s also wonderful to see you thinking about making it all work for dial-up. That’s a tough proposition, but I suspect just by working in the medium for a while you’ll come up with clever solutions.
Congratulations! And a big thanks for all your efforts.
April 14, 2007 at 2:55 am
Brilliant Africa needs something like this, well done.
April 14, 2007 at 10:45 pm
Congrats! Check with Ethan Zuckerman for suggestions on making files smaller – if he doesn’t know he should be able to point you to someone within the GV community who might have dealt with the same issue.
April 15, 2007 at 7:03 am
Hi Erik
I have just watched and listened to the first two episodes and I must congratulate you. Well done. The intro screens and music look very slick and professional, the content was great and I cant wait for the next one. Well done!
April 16, 2007 at 12:41 pm
Good job, Erik.