Dar es Salaam Bloggers Circle October Meeting Summary The Dar es Salaam Bloggers Circle (DBC) October meeting

took place as planned on Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at Cine Club, in Mikocheni, at 6.30 p.m. The meeting was attended by: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Ben Taylor (Daraja) Biche (ChickAboutTown) Cosmas Kileo Elsie Eyakuze (Mikocheni Report) Juvenary P. Mpenga Omar Mohammed (African Longreads/The Wayward Press) Sisty Basil (MazingiraChanya)

Omar Mohammed was the discussion leader for the meeting. Thanks, Omar, for a job well done! The Agenda included: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Blogging workshop Growing DBC membership Interlinking of our work Speaker series for us as social media practitioners (legal perspectives) Technical assistance Code of conduct Aggregator

DISCUSSION SUMMARY Blogging Workshop The DBC had planned a half-day blogging workshop to be held at the beginning of November. By the October meeting, it was clear that this would not be able to go on as planned. Although those present thought it was a good idea, they decided to postpone the workshop until the beginning of 2012, at which point the project would be reconsidered in a more holistic manner. Growing DBC Membership Although the DBC now meets regularly and is growing in strength and popularity, there still seems to be little buy-in from the greater Dar es Salam blogging community, as evidenced by low meeting attendance. Those present at the October meeting brainstormed on how the DBC could attract greater numbers to its meetings, in order to truly be representative of the blogging community in Dar es Salaam. One thing that many thought might be a problem was language. Most of the current active DBC members are English-language bloggers, with English currently being the main language used in DBC communication (though the DBC is a bilingual group and both English and Swahili may be used interchangeably). This might be one reason that bloggers in Dar es Salaam, many of whom are primarily Swahili speakers, are not embracing the DBC. To solve the general problem of low meeting attendance, it was decided that reminders for the monthly meetings would be sent at least one week

before each meeting by the DBC convener, after which, each DBC member would do their part to spread the message across different social networks, with particular emphasis on the fact that the DBC is a bilingual (Swahili/English) group, welcoming both English- and Swahili-language bloggers. Interlinking our work One of the goals of the DBC is to promote the Tanzanian blogosphere. It was noted that more effort needed to be made by DBC bloggers to promote each others blogs. This could be done by linking to others blogs directly or by promoting others blogs through social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. As a way forward, it was decided that DBC bloggers would let other members know whenever they published a new post by sharing a link on the DBC Facebook page. Once theyd done that, other DBC bloggers could read the post and promote it on their blogs and/or on other social networks. Speaker series for us as social media practitioners (legal perspectives) Often among Dar bloggers, the issue of legislation governing social media in Tanzania comes up. Those at the meeting thought it was time to tackle this issue and discover exactly what laws govern social media in Tanzania. If there isnt a clear national social media policy, or there exists one that DBC bloggers are not satisfied with, then a plan would be set in place to do what we could to help develop a national social media policy that serves the needs of the social media community in Tanzania. The first step is to find out more. To this end, those present decided to invite representatives of relevant bodies to speak with the DBC to shed more light on the matter. Ben said he would work on getting a representative from the Media Council of Tanzania to speak with the group; Omar said he would work on getting a representative from the Tanzania Media Fund; and Elsie said she would work on getting a representative from the Legal and Human Rights Center. Technical Assistance Bloggers are not necessarily techies, though blogging does have a technical component to it. It was pointed out that a useful service that the DBC could provide its members is to help them with the more technical aspects of blogging. Since the DBC is made up of members with a wide range of technical skill and ability, it was decided that this could easily be achieved through the DBC Google Group and Facebook page. If a DBC blogger needs technical assistance, they can ask for help through the Google Group and/or the Facebook page. Another blogger, willing and able to help in the specific instance, can then provide technical assistance as needed. Code of Conduct At previous meetings, it had been mentioned that the DBC should serve to positively affect the practice of blogging in Tanzania. As such, the DBC should encourage its members to adhere to blogging best practices and censure its members, through peer pressure, when they clearly participated in unethical or malicious behavior. In an effort to achieve this goal, those at the October meeting thought it would be a good idea to clearly state what the DBC considered blogging best practices by publishing a recommended Code of Conduct. Ben volunteered to research already existing blogging best practices, and to publish a draft Code of Conduct on the Facebook page and Google Group for discussion by the rest of the group.

Aggregator An ongoing DBC project is to build a Tanzanian blog aggregator, to showcase the full-extent of the Tanzanian blogosphere, all in one place. The Tanzanian Blog Awards has also been working on a similar project. Instead of reinventing the wheel, it was thought best to collaborate with the Tanzanian Blog Awards to achieve this goal. First steps were taken towards this collaboration, and the Tanzanian Blog Awards is willing to work with the DBC on this project. The details of this collaboration are still in the works. Date of next meeting: Wednesday, November 21, 2011