I haven't written anything in several days, for several reasons. To find out what we are up to, check out Lucy Chan's blog - she is an industrious blogger!
For the rest of us, connectivity has on many days gotten the better of us. We have ethernet in our hotel rooms and there is supposed to be wireless access in the hotel. However, I can count on one hand the number of times the signal has been strong and consistent enough to be useful. I suspect that this is a hotel issue, but only partly. We have been trying to make up this gap using 3G USB sticks - which is where I had "put my money" and faith for connectivity. I had been very much counting on wireless access everywhere, and was not prepared for the lack of it. I made this assessment based on the assumption that Africa would have skipped the laying of cable/copper/fibre and moved straight to cell/wireless technologies. This is true and was valid. What I hadn't counted on was that even though there is 3G coverage, this too would be spotty enough, and slow enough, to impact our connectivity.
We have also been dealing with a skills gap with the local IT team maintaining the hotel network and access. We had no connectivity for over 36 hours until some other hotel guests (German systems integrators also on "long term stay" at the Alisa) got with the team and pointed out some IP address conflicts that were blocking access to the local DNS server.
So this is my excuse for no blogging. I am going to use this in a glass half full way to highlight what we are all hearing -LOTS of issues to overcome, and LOTS of work to do with skills development. This translates to LOTS of potential in and for Africa. If we all are willing to work hard to make it happen.
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