Can't agree with you more; Artisteer makes it easier to build standards compliant templates and is quite pocket friendly too! Should be even more useful when they integrate Joomla, Drupal and Blogger.

Hi Thaya! Thanks for the cool WP Greet Box. I just buzzed it up on my blog (http://bs.kyambadde.com/wp-greet-box-a-cool-visit... Will keep you posted as and when i get a little tutorial up.

Bless you!

@Ken, thanks for visiting! Nice to know you are already looking on some of these. I suppose FrontlineSMS will be an even more useful tool as mobile Internet becomes more available such as in Rwanda where data costs are falling. I will keep you posted, and many thanks for FrontlineSMS.

@Jongos i agree with you, delivering more (and diverse) voices and content directly to the masses especially as a development tool. @Chris, i am not sure the 'quality'/format of the publications is as important as the quality/clarity of the content/discourse that that gets out to the comunities; take for example the amount of historical facts out there versus the ethnic problems that arise out of the belief of difference, basic survival or appropriate technologies, local resources optimisation, e.t.c.

Yes, from some of the traditional regional papers, the quality of writing is truely apalling (with some even believing/practising pro/opposition journalism) but the points Sid parmar makes are quite valid ones; 'groceries', political intimidation play a major role in the kind of content that reaches the masses. The media as truely 'the fourth estate' is yet to be realised in most of the region, and it sometimes is very frustrating the interests of those in power visavis creation of a knowledgeable populace. So whatever the options i think staying clear of 'political' content, in most of the current circumstances, would do what is planned real good you can tell the likes of 'The Eye' seem to stay well clear of that sort of mess.

Whatever the case, i would anitcipate the distribution numbers to outstrip those of the 'traditional' papers on proper establishment. I would think 'mobilising' the RSS content might add to the outlets; take for example mobile internet in Uganda (approximately 280,000) versus the traditional paper distributions. In some parts of the continent staying online but easily accessible (say via mobile devices internet) might circumvent local complications such as where there are strict requirements for setting up 'newspapers' outlets. Eitherway, I think this is a reasonable form of increasing local access to useful content and views.

Jongos, thanks for the post, and Zulusafari thanks for the discussion.

First, if the definition of religion as "the devotion of some principle; strict fidelity or faithfulness; conscientiousness; pious affection or attachment, " (according to 'The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary') is acceptable to any of you then it seems the case that lots of people including atheists have got some sort of religous devotion in their lives. These arguments are detailed in the Book 'Mankind's search for GOD' which discusses many of the religous beliefs around the world.

I have always learnt that God was and is still part of African society; the medium of accessing hat God might be different from that in Christianity, Islam or what other religion but he has always existed as many of the languages which have been in existence well before the advent of any external religions indicate. There is an interesting discussion on some of these issues and Africism by a one Lugira that might be worthy a look (see http://www2.bc.edu/~lugira/africism2.htm).

Thank you

Thanks for sharing!
The cynicism, distrust and fear are truly unfortunate but the thing is there doesn't seem much positive stuff that gets out of Africa (more so in the international main stream media). That alone hopefully gets more blogs on Africa. I guess much of the world would do with more education of the continent and its peoples instead of pumping aid which in some cases simply keeps around predatory elite (although saves plenty of lives). Then may be there could be more value and partnering with the people to take charge of their destiny. So yes, why not blog about Africa? There is plenty to educate the world about (including hope, resilience, ingenuity, love, aspiration, green living, modesty, conflict resolution) and entrepreneural opportunities.
Thanks