Our blog is where you'll find all our project updates, highlights and achievements, as well as other news and events related to iMENTORS
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iMENTORS has opened its data to all unregistered usersin its last six months of operation. It is important that donors provide information about the aid they give. More important though is for the information to be publicly available in a way that people can easily understand. iMENTORS (www.imentors.eu) is the most comprehensive data map on ICT investments in Africa and contains data across a multitude of entities, classified as organisations, research infrastructures, fibre networks and projects.
Louis Papaemmanuel, Project Director of iMENTORS, SU, presented iMENTORS at the IST-Africa Conference (06 - 09 May, Mauritius) during Session 8d: eInfrastructures (08 May). IST-Africa 2014 focused on the Role of ICT for Africa's Development and specifically on Applied ICT research in the areas of eHealth, Technology Enhanced Learning and ICT Skills, Digital Libraries, Open Source Software, eInfrastructures, Societal Implications of Technology and eGovernment.
iMENTORS (www.imentors.eu) is an interactive resource, the first of its kind, to contain information about all known e-infrastructures in Africa in the past five years. Launched for public use and input in July 2013 iMENTORS provides you with the necessary tool to visualise e-infrastructures and all related projects in Africa.
Louis Papaemmanuel explained how using iMENTORS and open aid data enhances the coherence of international aid. Data acquisition and validation will continue to progress until the end of the project. By the end of the project the interactive system will contain at least 80% of all e-infrastructure available in Africa.
A paper presenting iMENTORS tool for analysis of contextual factors will be presented at the World Conference on Information Systems and Technologies (WorldCIST) under the "Intelligent and Decision Support Systems" section, on the 15th April 2014 at Madeira Island, Portugal and will be published by Springer in a book of Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing series.
The paper is titled "Quantitative scenario-based assessment of contextual factors for ICT4D projects: Design And Implementation in a web based tool", written by iMENTORS team members: Anton Talantsev, Aron Larsson, Florence Nameere Kivunike, David Sundgren.
Image courtesy of sheelamohan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
iMENTORS is able to synchronize its data with other databases, fully utilizing Open Data and Web 2.0 interconnectivity. Our development team has created API processes to include information from CORDIS and the World Bank database, in order to create the largest online repository of eInfrastructure data.
Join us, learn about eInfrastructure projects in the area you are interested in and contribute your own information to our constantly growing database!
Image courtesy of cooldesign / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
iMENTORS statistics have now been completed for all data recorded up until Dec. 15th! During the last recording period, we added a total of 1398 new organizations and 413 new projects to our database, an increase over the last recording period of approximately 67% and 290%, respectively. In addition, we recorded 330 research infrastructures - a brand new category of information now uploaded and available for search in the iMENTORS database.
Is your organization among the new additions to the iMENTORS database? Check our map today!
Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
The latest addition to the iMENTORS database is the Connect 4 Change project. Connect 4 Change is a consortium of five Dutch development and ICT organizations collaborating to accelerate the realization of the Millennium Development Goals through the use of ICT. The program supports ICT initiatives in the areas of education, health and agricultural and economic development, and members of the consortium have funded nearly sixty different ICT projects in Africa. The consortium works with local partners in many different countries, including Burkino Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.
Image courtesy of cooldesign at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
iMENTORS’ Research Infrastructures (RIs) database is the first centralised portal of all high level research facilities and information sources in Africa or hosted elsewhere but focusing on Africa.
Image courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Research infrastructures refers to any facilities, resources or related services that are used or could be used by the scientific community to conduct top level research in their various disciplines. We are currently gathering all accessible information regarding RIs in Africa and would like your support. If you have any relevant information, please contact iMentors to help create an exhaustive database. Better still, you can update the database yourself at www.imentors.eu
iMENTORS has been busy recording and mapping information on all participating entities and the connections between them. ERAfrica is a new entry!
ERAfrica is an EU-funded project with the ambition of creating a "European Research Area Network" for the African continent.
iMENTORS goes live and is one step closer to becoming the most comprehensive crowdsourcing map on ICT infrastructures in Sub-Saharan Africa! Register and create your profile on the platform. Do not forget to send us your feedback on the beta version of the platform!
Co-funded by the European Commission’s DG CONNECT under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), iMENTORS www.imentors.eu is designed to enhance the coherence and effectiveness of international actors involved in e- infrastructures development projects and initiatives in Sub-Saharan Africa. iMENTORS launched in April 2012 by Stockholm University and Gov2u is a web-based platform serving as a knowledge repository for sharing and aggregating data on e-infrastructure projects throughout sub-Saharan Africa.
Check out the map now: www.imentors.eu/map.html
This edition of the iMENTORS newsletter gives you more in-depth insights into current issues in the world of e-infrastructure, research infrastructure, national /regional research and education networks, ICT and data. Read it online!
Louis Papaemmanuel, Business Development- Brand & Product Manager of eGovlab and project director of iMENTORS, will present iMENTORS project in a session called Euro African Joint ICT Research Priorities (Day 4, Thursday November 29, 9.30am) at the 2012 Africa-EU Cooperation Forum on ICT, Lisbon November 28-29.
The "2012 Africa-EU Cooperation Forum on ICT" (an event designed to anyone with an interest in Euro-African collaborative project on ICT) will be held on November 28-29, 2012, at the Centro Cultural de Belém (CCB) in Lisbon, Portugal. The event is organised by the EuroAfrica-P8 EU/FP7 funded project in the framework of the EuroAfrica-ICT Initiative and with the support of the National Science Foundation (FCT) of Portugal. This major event is the fifth of a series of very successful conferences organised by the EuroAfrica-ICT Initiative under the aegis of the European and the African Union Commissions (EC & AUC): March 25-26, 2009 – Brussels, Belgium, February 4, 2010 – Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, December 7-8, 2010 – Helsinki, Finland, November 14-15, 2011 – Cape Town, South Africa.
This project has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 313203 