ICTworks by Inveneo

Recently, Google hosted G-Uganda developer days in Kampala to great success. Just listen to the outcomes:

The hundreds of assembled Ugandan developers showed remarkable enthusiasm. In three hours after being challenged to write creative code in Python to run on Google App Engine, the finalists at our G-Uganda hackathon stood center stage, demonstrating their creations. Many of the ideas used not just App Engine, but also integrated with Google Maps, Translate and Calendar.

Daniel Okalang did a demo of a guest book, with authentication and a privacy filter; Samuel Mugisha created a guest book with public and private messages and Joseph Kaizzi transformed the guest book concept into a full-fledged phone book, allowing users to email or phone contacts. Marc Charles Wanume and Eric Lwanga implemented a bilingual version of the guestbook, supporting English and Swahili interfaces.

The audience selected two winners among nine finalists: an app that searches recent Twitter posts, per-user or anonymously; and a new microblog app where you can delete your posts. The winners received a new Android-powered Nexus One phone – and hopefully, the encouragement to develop many more exciting apps.

Thank you Google for recognizing that there are talented software programmers in Uganda.

Across colleges in North America, ProjectFOCUS is raising awareness and capital to invest in solar-powered, income-generating internet cafes in Uganda with amazing, replicable computer lab fundraising skills.

But they're not just about fundraising or computer technology, they're also innovators in ICT4D. On June 5th, when they opened the Lyantonde Internet Center in cooperation with ICOD, they used bicycles to extend the reach of the Internet Cafe beyond it's physical office space. Watch the opening ceremony video to learn how:

By donating bicycles to farmer groups' elected "information agent" in the five villages of Luwama, Kyewanula, Kitazigolokwa, Iwensinga, and Lyantonde, ProjectFOCUS is increasing information dissemination among farmers in rural Uganda.

So the next time you're wondering how you can expand the impact of a computer lab, don't forget the basics like facilitating transportation to and from the cafe. A simple bike race and donation can change the whole perception of Internet access in rural areas.

The UN Global Pulse project is seeking an Innovation Officer to assist in the initial planning, documentation, fundraising and skeleton-defining of an innovation "Pulse Lab" in Uganda.

Pulse Labs are national facilities established to support the work of government by developing analytical and technological capacity for evidence-based decision making and sustainable innovation in crisis resilience. Central to the Pulse Labs mission is the development of sustainable “dual-use” systems that simultaneously provide value directly to vulnerable communities while also generating streams of actionable real-time information to help leaders understand quickly how populations are being affected, respond rapidly with high-value, targeted policy interventions, and generate evidence for advocacy at the global level.

In preparation for global deployment, Global Pulse will stand up an initial network of three Pulse Lab “prototypes” over a three-year period to develop and refine the model. The basic modality of a Pulse Lab is to support the lab team, through both curriculum-based training and ad hoc, on-the-job peer mentoring, as they work to support government in improving crisis resilience.

The primary work of the lab team consists of identifying critical information gaps and needs, selecting vulnerable communities to participate as Global Pulse sentinel sites, and working with public and private-sector partners to create technology solutions that strengthen national capacity for evidence-based decision making and rapid response.

This lab set-up exercise should also be an exercise in open source collaboration. There are many lab efforts already ongoing in Uganda. The Pulse Lab should not replace or supplant existing efforts but rather build on them and serve as the connective tissue that can bind them together.

The scope of work for this consultation is to map out the existing landscape of labs / innovation in Uganda and to work closely with UNICEF Uganda's Innovation team to generate the plans necessary for starting a full Pulse Lab in January 2011.

Interested? Read more about the Pulse lab Consultancy

World Vision Uganda (WVU) is a Christian Relief, Development and Advocacy N on-Government Organization dedicated to working with children, families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice in over 27 districts of Uganda.

World Vision is committed to the protection of children and does not employ people whose background is not suitable for working with children. All employment is conditioned upon the successful completion of all applicable background checks, including criminal record checks where possible. "Our Vision for every child, Life in all its fullness. Our prayer for every Heart, the will to make it so." World Vision Uganda is seeking to hire qualified persons to fill the following positions

Position: Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Manager
Reports to: Support services Director
Location: Kampala

PURPOSE OF POSITION:
To provide leadership and management of ICT and establish ICT as a Critical Success Factor in all World Vision's work.

Key Result Areas:
ICT Strategic Leadership
• Develop and maintain a 3-year National Office ICT Strategy and related policies and standards aligned with the Partnership and Region Prepare, review and monitor the ICT Annual Budget and -Operating Plan to ensure effective implementation of the ICT Strategy.
• Provide leadership to the National ICT team and advise National Office Leadership Team on ICT Developments and Policy Issues

ICT Management
• Maintain an aggregated view of all significant/major ICT projects' status and schedule for implementation and support across the National Office.
• Work closely with Regional and Global ICT teams to ensure that the telecommunications, technology and applications.
• Manage the introduction, implementation and support of appropriate ICT in the national Office in line with Partnership standards and policies and local legal requirements.
• Manage the introduction of structured end-user capacity building to ensure optimal and efficient use of all the ICT systems/tools available to the organization.
• Manage relationships with role players and stakeholders in the ICT industry both internal and external to World Vision.

ICT Operations and Support
• Develop, deploy and maintain appropriate ICT Infrastructure and Connectivity solutions for WVU for secure, efficient and effective flow of information to facilitate operations and decision making.
• Provide, deploy and maintain Personal Productivity Tools and Software based Productivity Too Is
• Develop, deploy and maintain appropriate Business Applications that support critical business processes to ensure accurate data gathering, storage, retrieval, processing and reporting to facilitate operations and decision making.
• Develop, deploy and maintain appropriate security systems that ensure Network, Systems and Data Security from internal and external security threats.
• Develop, document, implement, test and review Business Continuity Plan (Disaster Recovery Plan) in alignment with the National Office Disaster Mitigation and Management Plans
• Develop, deploy and maintain performance Monitoring and Reporting systems that provide management and technical reports for decision making and operational support.

Qualifications: Education/Knowledge/Technical Skills and Experience
• Bachelors Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology and related field.
• Qualified as a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MSCE) or CCNA.
• ITIL Certification will be an added advantage
• Good communication skills both verbal and written.
• Good problem solving and analytical skills
• 5 years of working experience 2 of which have been in the capacity of managing an ICT Department in a busy environment.
Apply for this job

How to apply:

Interested persons who meet the above criteria should submit their applications together with an updated CV and copies of academic transcripts (only) with at least three suitable referees with their telephone contact to: wvujobs@wvi.org or hand deliver to World vision National office (Please indicate the position you are applying for)

Closing date for receiving applications is: 19th August, 2010 at 5pm

Google is hosting developer and tech days across Africa with two exciting events, G-Uganda and G-Kenya, taking place early this September.

These web and mobile themed conferences will focus on Google’s developer and business technologies from Chrome Extensions and App Engine, to mobile and AdWords. Attendees will have the chance to explore Google’s open source technologies through a combination of tech talks, breakout sessions and codelabs run by engineers and business teams from across the globe.

G-Uganda will be held on September 1st - 2nd at the Speke Conference Centre just outside of Kampala. Closely on its heels, G-Kenya is running September 6th - 8th at Strathmore University in Nairobi.

More info at Google developer and tech days coming to Kenya and Uganda