So what is GET ONLINE WEEK? basically it’s an annual digital empowerment campaign that’s launched by the European network of telecenters. This year, for the first time ever we have decided to launch it in Egypt and MENA region on the 21st March-27th of March! The aim is to promote the role of technology in our daily lives and to empower people to use ICT.
ICT is becoming increasingly important in our world today especially in the realm of social innovation and development. So we’ve decided that the theme will focus on digital jobs, employment, social innovation and entrepreneurship. Technology provides us with an endless world of opportunities to innovate, create and develop for the benefit of our society. Through Get Online Week we hope to spread these ideas in Egypt and the region! Activities will be launched both online and offline to promote the role of ICT in development, showcase innovative initiatives and engage youth, private sector and CSOs in discussions and knowledge exchange.
The scope of collaboration will encompass a variety of activities that will engage our communities ranging from ICT awareness sessions, trainings, workshops, onlined debates, webinars, roundtable discussion on Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship as well as a final event ‘Innovation and Creativity for Development’ on the 27th of March at El Sawy Culture Wheel. Get Online Week activities are not limited to the latter, the main goal is to find creative ways to integrate our societies into the digital world.
We think Get Online Week would be a great platform to promote Spot the Future, so we suggest that we include a webinar or a short video presentation about Spot the Future as one of our activities! We will post them on the Get Online Week website and Facebook page (mind you they’re still a working progress; should be completed and active by next week, I’ll share the links once they’re ready) as well as our UNDP Egypt social media outlets! This would be a very creative way to promote Spot the Future as well as engage those interesting innovators we’re looking for! It can be used by all the Country Offices to promote the initiative, not just for Get Online Week! The videos on the Edgeryders website are great!
We would also like to create a cool infograph which simply summarizes what Spot the Future is, visual mechanisms are always the most effective! All we need from Edgeryders is the content for the infograph, very simple and brief info and our designer will make one
I will provide you with a detailed agenda and the links by next week! and I’ll update you on what’s going on as we go…
Good idea and thanks for offering! I think this would be useful. I think a good visualisation is one which is based on a clear idea of how the two initiatives, Get Online Week and Spot the Future could complement each other in generating value for participants. If we align our initiatives so they provide the conditions for participants to be able to collaborate in supporting one another’s initiatives, this would be a big contribution. And a way to make the most of resources both initatives have to drive support towards people doing good work in Egypt.
I had a look at the Get Online Week website, is there a space where people can connect and start introducing themselves and their projects before the event? If not we can create one here and invite people who are registered to start sharing their stories. Then you can pick the material you like and publish on the Get Online Week blog and people can easily stay in touch after the event without adding more workload on you. This requires some coordination and community management that is probably outside the scope of all the work you are already putting into the week. But we have those resources in Spot the Future anyway. So maybe we can help?
We should definitely find ways to allign both initiatives together. So what do you think about recording a short video introducing Spot the Future? I know it may take some time, but I think we need to find simple ways to explain the objectives and outcomes of the project and share it with everyone about there! And for the infograph, if you can just send me some simple and brief info you’d like to put in the infograph, I’ll pass it on to the designer and we can make a really cool one!
As for Get Online Week, our website should be complete sometime this week and we were planning on having a blog on there, but we can definitely find a way to collaborate! as soon as the website is ready, I’ll let you know!
Talk to you soon, and hope you’re having a lovely weekend!
Gazbee, is this open to showcase some projects that are not – yet! – active in the MENA region?
Because, me and one teammate are currently preparing for the launch of our digital social innovation Economy App, a moneyless marketplace for the people and a tool to fight unemployment. If you think it fits in, I can do a short blogpost for the GET ONLINE WEEK site, with a screencast video (English voiceover) showing the software in motion. Could also share a bit of the story – it’s just as fuzzy and muddled as for most grassroots innovators.
The sneak preview of the software would be exclusive just for GET ONLINE WEEK (for the past two years of development, we somehow never got around to show the looks and usage of Economy App). Happy to break the silence for supporting social innovators in Egypt and the region
Congratulations on your new project, sounds very exciting!!
Everything should be active and ready by the end of this week; Get Online Week launches really soon so we are finalizing the activitives, agenda and the website!
And of course, your idea fits in perfectly! Get Online Week is all about innovation, so we would be more than happy to provide you with the space to showcase and give an exclusive preview for the economy app in GOW!
I’ll keep you updated about the website etc as soon as it’s complete
So, we’ve finally launched Get Online Week! The mobile application development marathon was great, they came up with a lot of innovative ideas, that might also be useful for Spot the Future, but i’ll write a post about that later with more details!
Anyway, if you’re still interested in having a live webinar or a pre-recorded one, you’re more than welcome!
the first webinar will be tonight at 7 pm (Egypt Time) by Bus Pooling, a crowd-sourced bus transportation service on “how to quit your job, work online and start your own business”. The only thing is that it will be in Arabic, but you can tune in to see how it goes! We’ll provide detailed instructions on the GOW fb page on how to access it!
Please fill in the following form if you’re up for introducing the economy app some time between today and Thursday!
Great to see so much Internet-enabled innovation …
… like the projects and approaches presented now through Get Online Wee MENA. I’m listening right now to the Bus Pooling webinar and also found their website, educating me about what they do against the Cairo traffic jam problem.
Thanks for the invite, Gazbee – I’m definetely interested in presenting Economy App at Get Online Week We’re rebuilding some features right now, so I need to wait a bit before doing a screencast video, but I think I can get it done on Tuesday. I’d like to re-use that screencast video as an instructional video on our site later, so I’d prefer a blog post with embedded screencast video on getonlineweek-mena.com – a full featured webinar is a bit toomuch visibility for us anyway, since we’re just starting up smilez
So I’ll get a blog post done and get back to you with the application form.
Sorry it took so long (got a bad cold, so I had issues getting anything useful done since yesterday ). I hope it can still be useful for Get Online Week somehow – feel free to feature / post / share the content any way you like. Followed the Facebook page of course, and will now go out and tweet a bit about #GOWMENA
I think I’ll also add something about the Makerfox / Edgeryders connection to my GOW page if it’s ok.
I’ve noted the hashtag for the event. I’m the one currently manning the social media accounts for Edgeryders and will be following you guys, but unfortunately I’m away from the computer over the entire next week. Whoever will be taking care of the accounts while I’m gone will keep the hashtag in mind
). I hope it can still be useful for Get Online Week somehow – feel free to feature / post / share the content any way you like. Followed the Facebook page of course, and will now go out and tweet a bit about