Sites Kabissa is involved with for African civil society

[Tobias Eigen]

Hi Ryan!

You didn't promise too much. :-) Kudos for setting this up!

Joomla sites Kabissa developed and launched are below. These are of course all Mambo 4.5.1 sites, but will be upgraded to Joomla when the time is ripe. I'll keep coming back to update this posting as the list grows.

[url=http://www.kabissa.org]Kabissa - Space for Change in Africa
http://www.kabissa.org[/url]

"Kabissa, meaning complete in kiswahili, believes that information and communication technologies (ICTs) are a revolutionary force in civil society. Our mission is to help African civil society organizations put ICTs to work for the benefit of the people they serve." This is our main site and will evolve into a relatively sophisticated online community Web site, probably incorporating CiviCRM, Simple Machines Forum and other nifty community tools for blogging, mobile phone advocacy and so on.

[url=http://www.timetogetonline.org]Kabissa - Time To Get Online training program
http://www.timetogetonline.org[/url]

"African organizations are often unaware of the benefits of the Internet for their organization or lack the necessary skills to effectively use Internet tools and resources. With the high cost of an Internet connection, not knowing how to quickly find and access relevant information on the Web can be a costly lesson. In 2003, Kabissa launched the Time to Get Online program, which combines self-learning materials with hands-on workshops to empower African organizations to fully integrate the Internet into their work. The program is designed specifically for the needs of African civil society organizations and structured around Kabissa’s Steps to Success methodology. This methodology promotes the idea that organizations must gradually build their Internet skills and use those Internet tools most appropriate for their own priorities, communities, and environment."

[url=http://www.africandemocracyforum.org]African Democracy Forum
http://www.africandemocracyforum.org[/url]

"The Africa Democracy Forum (ADF) brings together democrats from Angolophone, Francophone, and Lusophone countries in Africa and develops an African agenda for democracy.  As a network of democracy activists on the continent, the ADF seeks to consolidate democracy in the region by providing opportunities for democrats to openly express their views while acting as a platform for mutual support and the sharing of resources." The ADF Site will include integrated online community tools much like those planned for Kabissa's main site.

[url=http://www.mfnetwork.org]Microfinance Network
http://www.mfnetwork.org[/url]

"The MicroFinance Network (MFN) is a global association of leading microfinance institutions committed to improving the quality of life of the poor through the provision of credit, savings, and other financial services.  Network members believe in applying a commercial approach to the establishment of sustainable financial institutions that reach large volumes of clients who are not served by traditional financial institutions."

[url=http://www.globalechange.com]echange
http://www.globalechange.com [/url]

"echange works to create positive global change. As the logo symbolizes, echange values technology as an important catalyst for exponential change in the world. But our work is not simply about technology: it’s about people. We collaborate with individual clients, one by one. We help them achieve positive results for their organizations. The organizations then benefit their communities, who in turn create positive changes in their country. This is a prime example of exponential change—and we can trace it back to our initial conversation with only one individual."

Cheers,

Tobias

[nwm]

Hi

Have only just seen reference to your pages on Joomla Forum. Tremendous effort!

General question on use of Joomla on these sites. I have found that converting Newtraid.org to Mambo/Joomla created a problem with loading times of the Frontpage. I therefore  created a simple frontpage with no graphics and minimum css and html file sizes but with basic information about the organisation and links to other pages. This reduced the loading time to about 1.5 secs on a 56K connection compared with about 30secs on a more complex page. (Kabissa.org is about 36secs using the same test)  My question is - does this really matter or is this not really such a problem - did I waste my time changing the Frontpage? 

There are other points I would like to raise about Kabissa and Newtraid it would be more apprpriate to use a PM or email. Will be in touch.

[Tobias Eigen]

Hi Norman -

Have only just seen reference to your pages on Joomla Forum. Tremendous effort!

Thanks!

General question on use of Joomla on these sites. I have found that converting Newtraid.org to Mambo/Joomla created a problem with loading times of the Frontpage. I therefore  created a simple frontpage with no graphics and minimum css and html file sizes but with basic information about the organisation and links to other pages. This reduced the loading time to about 1.5 secs on a 56K connection compared with about 30secs on a more complex page. (Kabissa.org is about 36secs using the same test)  My question is - does this really matter or is this not really such a problem - did I waste my time changing the Frontpage? 

You know, I do think it is better to have all pages load faster - not just the frontpage. Keep in mind that alot of people will find you through Google or links to you so they might not see your homepage first.

We know our site loads slowly, but it's interesting that nobody seems to care - we don't get complaints. Other interfaces like webmail that our members in Africa rely on are very fast, though, using a different template (not even part of the Joomla site). One of our goals for the next round of website improvements is to speed it up - any suggestions on this are appreciated.

If you're concerned about this consider advocating loband.org - http://www.loband.org - which delivers simplified pages for low-bandwidth connections. There's even a firefox plugin for it.

You can also create an alternate template that is stripped down.

There are other points I would like to raise about Kabissa and Newtraid it would be more apprpriate to use a PM or email. Will be in touch.

Feel free to contact me by PM, then we can exchange email addresses. Your project looks interesting!

Cheers,

Tobias