Friends,

My team, Libraries Across Africa is competing in the 2011 Dell Social Innovation Competition, and we need your votes to advance to the next round!

Libraries Across Africa (LAA) seeks  to empower individuals and communities across Africa by delivering digitally-enhanced multi-use library facilities throughout Africa. LAA envisions that libraries are not merely a repository for books, but they are also a catalyst for community development and empowerment. By providing cost effective infrastructure and information solutions, communities will be empowered to address their own unique economic, educational, social, technological, and business challenges.

Kindly vote for us today (and get your friends to vote too). Voting closes on Feb. 18, 2011

http://www.dellsocialinnovationcompetition.com/ideaView?id=08780000000Dcx4AAC


Your vote, along with the competition judges, determines the $50,000 grand prize winner of the 2011 Dell Social Innovation Competition.
The top 10 projects will automatically be made semifinalists and move to round two of the competition. In rounds two and three, top projects win Dell prizes.

Stay tuned and vote in each round of competition!  Please spread this to your networks

Hello Nairalanders,

This is a project we are working on to bring virtual libraries to like 5 countries in Africa.

The pilot might be for 2 countries which would later spread to the other 5.

If you have any questions you can post on this thread

Voted! Great concept. Very nice vimeo video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RABMjgmI7A

The LAA idea is distinctive because it does not provide a packaged solution to problems it does not and cannot understand as intimately as affected communities. Rather, an LAA eLibrary provides the means for communities to create their own solutions. In essence, an LAA eLibrary is a ‘business in a box’ approach in that it allows individuals and communities to operate units and generate immediate economic benefit, while increasing the learning, educational, and social gathering capabilities of their communities.

Thanks for your votes!

Impressive! Great video.

Check out their site too:
http://librariesacrossafrica.org/index.html

I hope you guys win!

Follow these steps to vote

Voting takes less than 2 min - just follow these instructions:

- Log on to http://www.dellsocialinnovationcompetition.com/ideaView?id=08780000000Dcx4AAC

- Click "Register Now" in the top right pane (this is in blue font below the login box).
,
- Choose a username and supply your email address. An email indicating your password will be sent to you as an email.

- Go back to the website and log in with your chosen username and the password mailed to you.

- On the top right corner of the website, search for ‘Agora" and click on Go.

- Just beside the title-Libraries Across Africa- Empowerment through Access, click Vote (a north pointing arrow).

- Click the big blue F at the top to post to your Facebook (if you wish)

Now in position 24 with over 3000 votes, help spread love today by voting to move us to top 10 to help bring digital libraries to Africa.

Good job Loma

Schematic of an LAA-eLibrary showing the Anchor, Agora, and e-Hub.

We just crossed the 4000 votes point. Kindly vote today to empower Africa!

http://www.dellsocialinnovationcompetition.com/ideaView?id=08780000000Dcx4AAC

this should be on the front page and sticked on here

We are now in top 20, but need to get to top 10 to move to the next round.

Vote for a digital Africa- http://www.dellsocialinnovationcompetition.com/ideaView?id=08780000000Dcx4AAC

Now in top17 with 4780 votes.

Go to http://www.dellsocialinnovationcompetition.com/ideaView?id=08780000000Dcx4AAC and vote for LAA

Voted! #4800

Nice one guys. . . I go vote when I reach house. . .

Am casting my vote for a digital libraries in Africa especially in Nigeria (Abia State) in particular.

Good idea.

just voted

I support this motion!

hmmmm dayo, na this you dey do wey you no fit send me car (not with a "d" o) for valentine?

no wahala, I support! 

We are looking at 5 countries first Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Kenya and Zambia

We have significant interest from Google, Xerox and Cisco to become technical partners

We also have an agreement with Rice University to provide access to all their online resources.

We met with some initial resistance from some people regarding locating in Nigeria One of the guys on the team(Who had previously worked in Nigeria) preferred other African countries but we told them they cant do anything meaningful when the biggest African country is out of it.

Further presentation to be done later in the year at MIT if we proceed to the final stages

Ileke-IdI:

hmmmm dayo, na this you dey do wey you no fit send me car (not with a "d" o) for valentine?
no wahala, I support! 

I fit send you CARrot aka Lollipop

Guys, thanks for the support. You can vote multiple times using different email addresses.[font=Lucida Sans Unicode][/font]


We aim to provide the follwing;



Free/Subsidized broadband access in the e-hub and within the LAA Zone positioning the library as a social, educational and economic hub

Low cost access to expensive subscription-based academic journals, software, and other content

On-demand printing technology delivers both up to date electronic resources as well as physical collections relevant to the needs of local LAA communities

@Ileke-Idi; now is the time to show your true love for Dayokanu- vote and get your friends and family to vote too!

@EzeUche- kindly support it by voting sir.

Trying to get familiar with the idea.

@mrperfect- I am here to answer your questions

dayokanu:

We are looking at 5 countries first Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Kenya and Zambia

We have significant interest from Google, Xerox and Cisco to become technical partners

We also have an agreement with Rice University to provide access to all their online resources.

Great job!

We met with some initial resistance from some people regarding locating in Nigeria The other Carribean guy involved(Who had previously worked in Nigeria) preferred other African countries but we told them they cant do anything meaningful when the biggest African country is out of it.

Na wa o. It seems the closer they are to Nigeria the lesser they like us  Anyway, they shouldn't be afraid, we will surmount our problems and take a position befitting the largest Black population on earth. It's only a matter of time.

We need to educate more of our people first.

Further presentation to be done later in the year at MIT if we proceed to the final stages

Great! The MIT open courseware is a great resource. I can't wait to see the impact of this initiative in the lives of young Nigerians, especially those living outside urban areas.

Ioma, DK, please continue to push hard for the inclusion of local knowledge. Our people know so little about themselves, their environment, history, culture and local sciences. I'm personally learning more about us outside formal Nigerian Education.

NL lurkers, make una vote too o! from a socio-political standpoint(since this is in the politics section) It is harder for corrupt politicians to swindle young Nigerians armed with good knowledge and information.

@Kilode; Local content is key, and one of the highlights of this project. People will be encouraged to create  and upload their own content (see Google Baraza with whom we plan to open discussions-http://www.google.com/baraza/en/thread?tid=3084c339e2379cf8), and the only printed books you will find in the library will be the ones that that community finds relevant, even if its not in English.


A further distinction of the LAA approach is that it allows communities to create their own libraries around what is important to them, as against being merely the recipients of discarded and donated American books. With the on-demand printing facility, people can print media that is in their own language, including original works and translations.  They can generate content for smaller libraries in neighbouring communities, while inexpensive, up-to-date textbooks can be printed for school children

loma:

@Kilode; Local content is key, and one of the highlights of this project. People will be encouraged to create and upload their own content (see Google Baraza with whom we plan to open discussions-http://www.google.com/baraza/en/thread?tid=3084c339e2379cf8), and the only printed books you will find in the library will be the ones that that community finds relevant, even if its not in English.


A further distinction of the LAA approach is that it allows communities to create their own libraries around what is important to them, as against being merely the recipients of discarded and donated American books. With the on-demand printing facility, people can print media that is in their own language, including original works and translations. They can generate content for smaller libraries in neighbouring communities, while inexpensive, up-to-date textbooks can be printed for school children

This is just amazing stuff. I believe our institutions work better when communities take part ownership, like they did with education in the first republic regions, housing local schools, teachers and taking part ownership of the education process with central but not too intrusive administration.

the only printed books you will find in the library will be the ones that that community finds relevant, even if its not in English.

I like the point about language.

Now, will folks be able to take materials home for private use? including printed ones?

Or will all materials have to be used/consumed within the project space?

Will private commercial partners be allowed to advertise within the library space? if yes, what will their limits be?

On the issue of printed items- if its printed by the librarian, they will have to work out lending mechanisms(understanding the nature of their people), but customers can also print books that they want- so suddenly, through partnerships with big publishers, you can get the latest version of the Physics 205 textbook, and not have to stay in line for the only copy available at the OAU reference library ( Great Ife!)

On advertising, this is our take-Socially Responsible Advertising: LAA will leverage its unique location in community and educational institution centers to provide ‘top of mind’ advertising services to socially responsible products and vendors.

I'm always wary about registering my e mail(s) on all these voting sites reason being that subsequently they begin to bombard you with junk mails & fill your inbox.Just my thoughts

I have done it last year and this year and they send NO SPAM. Dell deletes all emails after voting.

But anyway, I am from Ghana and live in South Africa and have lived in Lagos and do not think you guys will get it done. I think the libararies should come to South Africa and Ghana first and I have emailed the company to say as much. I think because more votes will come from here in SA, they will of course bring the first ones here.

Kwame