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KRC and "Dadamac Goes Glocal" update and invitation November 3, 2010

Hi All

Here is an update on Dadamac things related to our ongoing attempts to narrow the gap between academia and practice. I also express ongoing appreciation to academic friends for willingness to include me in various academic happenings.

(In the unlikely event that you read this before 9.00 am GMT on Thursday November 4th - please consider yourself invited to what is going on. There were some local problems regarding the final scheduling, so this year's celebration is  more of a family party - as it was back in 2005 - rather than the "open to all" event that it was last year as a fringe event at BarCamp Africa.)

The event - Dadamac Day
 
The event is  Dadamac Day - our annual celebration. There is usually a bit of a party in Nigeria and we link up from the UK to join in. Sometimes we bring along some other guests  - such as your good selves.

If you are able to join us at this last minute, let me know - it will be on skype (here is my skype ID in case we are not yet connected - pamelamclean).

Focus on education, training and research

This year we are celebrating the ongoing link between UK and Nigeria, with a special focus on education, training and research. John and his team do lots of education, training and research locally and we want to find better ways to link it up with the global community through the Knowledge Resource Centre (KRC). We'll be doing a quick review of what is going on locally, and putting it into a global context. Also, because it is such a special event, we get a chance to use a huge chunk of Zittnet's bandwidth for a while. If we are lucky this is enough to get a video link and a rare chance to see each other  - "face to face' almost - to wave and smile at each other between UK and Nigeria. For some of us it is the first chance to put a face to a name, for others it is a rare opportunity see familiar faces that are very precious to us. It is a very special part of our celebration - made even more special by the uncertainty of it working at all..

Latest local initiative - rural diagnostic laboratory

We are also celebrating the launch of John's latest local initiative. He writes:

"Following our successful screening of over 5,000 children for sickle cell, Fantsuam Foundation has decided to construct its own rural diagnostic laboratory. This facility, when fully equipped will serve rural population of over 600,000 within a 55km radius of the facility. We think this is a befitting milestone to celebrate the 6th DadaMac Day."

Obviously this laboratory has been set up primarily to serve a real medical need, but it will be collecting very useful data too. John is also providing training to parents and health workers so they know how best to care for the children who are sufferers

Going glocal

We are feeling increasingly encouraged by evidence that "digital divide" gaps of one kind and another are reducing. I have written about a few of them recently. We believe that our dream of connecting up the local (in Nigeria) with the global (through the Internet) is edging closer to realisation. We are hopeful that the time is coming that  "Dadamac goes Glocal"

Recent references related to the future and some thinking behind of the reducing gaps.

 

Posted to  Dadamac's Posterous - http://dadamac.posterous.com/ 
by Pamela McLean - http://www.dadamac.net/about/pam
Emai - l pamela.mclean@dadamac.net
Twitter -  @Pamela_McLean and #dadamac
Website  - http://www.dadamac.net/company

Dadamac - "We introduce people to each other (mostly UK-Nigeria) and help them do useful stuff. How can we help you?"