FINDIT.gm - Groundbreaking Website Launches in The Gambia

FINDIT.gm - Groundbreaking Website Launches in The Gambia

PRWeb – Mon, Jul 4, 2011

Something huge is happening in the tiny West African country of The Gambia. With a population of about 1.7 million people and a land area of approximately 4,007 square miles, Gambia is the smallest continental African country. However, its size has not stopped Gambian trailblazers from making a huge impact on technology. In fact, New Century, LTD, Gambia’s newest ICT consulting firm, which also provides endless business support services, has launched a revolutionary new website, http://www.FINDIT.gm; And it has been the talk of the country, with almost 1 million hits since its launching merely two weeks ago.

Kotu, The Gambia (PRWEB) July 04, 2011

FINDIT.gm is The Gambia’s answer to Google.com, Yahoo.com, Facebook.com, Careerbuilder.com and Yellowpages.com – all in one place. The concept behind FINDIT.gm is to create one central online location for all things Gambian. It offers a business directory that will feature each and every business located in the Gambia, making it easier for Gambians and tourists to find products and services they need. Each business listing is complete with photographs, directions, contact information and much more. In an effort to connect Gambian employers with job seekers, FINDIT.gm offers an employment classified page called JOB CENTER, wherein businesses can list job vacancies and browse CV’s of potential employees. Job seekers can also search job vacancies and upload their CV’s for employers to review. There is also a social networking component, called JOKOR, which means “connect”, in the most widely spoken native language of Wolof. JOKOR is directed toward Gambians within the country and those in the Diaspora who wish to connect in their own way online. In addition, businesses can use the JOKOR to communicate with the public, share files with their staff members in and outside the office. Just for fun, there is also a page on FINDIT.gm called PAPARAZZI, which displays photographs taken at all the major events that occur in The Gambia. Partygoers and event attendees can simply visit the site to see photos of themselves and their friends.

In addition to providing all of these useful and fun features, FINDIT.gm is leading the effort to place The Gambia on an equal technological platform as larger countries. It is worth mentioning that the website is well built and easy to navigate. FINDIT.gm was designed and built in The Gambia, by New Century’s own web developers. The Directors of New Century, who are all born and raised in The Gambia, were educated in the U.S. and the U.K. However, they each chose to return to The Gambia to use their knowledge and expertise to introduce innovative technological ideas in their home country. The President of New Century, Mr. Ahmed Tijan Jallow, had this to say about the concept behind the development of FINDIT.gm, “In order for a country to progress socially and economically in this era of information technology, they need to embrace new innovative ideas, such as FINDIT.gm. Nowadays, internet marketing is the best marketing tool that businesses have at their disposal because they can maximize their exposure for a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing strategies. By integrating other useful and entertaining features, such as job classifieds and social networking with the marketing tool we’ve created the perfect platform for Gambian businesses to be seen. As you can see, we’re very excited about FINDIT.gm and hope that it will become a useful part of daily life in the Gambia.”

The creation of FINDIT.gm marks a monumental achievement for The Gambia, proving that the small country is ready to compete on an equal technological platform as its larger counterparts.

To experience all that the website has to offer, visit http://www.findit.gm today.

K. Faal
New Century LTD
2203830300


Sites showing the new release:

Yahoo news

prweb.com


http://www.topix.com/world/the-gambia/2011/07/findit-gm-groundbreaking-website-launches-in-the-gambia

http://www.americanbankingnews.com/2011/07/04/findit-gm-groundbreaking-website-launches-in-the-gambia/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AmericanBankingNews+%28American+Banking+News%29

Virtual desktop for Windows

Dexpot is a feature rich desktop manager for Windows. You can setup Dexpot to simply enable extra workspaces—up to 20 total workspaces—just to have a little extra space to spread out your work. If you delve into the more advanced features you can set up rules for where applications will end up when launched and customize each virtual desktop to have its own wallpaper and resolution. Dexpot has multiple ways of navigating your virtual desktops including keyboard shortcuts, a small thumbnail catalog of your active desktops, and a full screen Exposé-like preview of all desktops.
Download Dexpot

Turn your Windows 7 Internet Connection to a WiFi HotSpot

So now that you've all probably made the move to Windows 7, here is a trick that can convert your Windows 7 internet connection into a WiFi hotspot..

Connectify is a new software that is build specially for Windows 7. It is designed for both Windows 32 bits and 64 bits which can take any windows internet connection and share it wirelessly without any other software.

So basically you can take your Windows 7 and make it a wi-fi hotspot and share your internet connetion with your friends, relatives or co-workers or your mobile devices.

Connectify is in Beta and can be used to connect any number of mobile devices to your windows internet connection. Pretty cool uh..

Entrepreneur Brings the Internet, Health and Hope to The Gambia

Source America.gov

Washington — A youth who grew up in The Gambia, a sliver of a country in West Africa, left home at age 16, a few months after his mother died, to study in Great Britain, and came back six years later with a degree in electrical engineering and a dream to enable his young compatriots to acquire higher education without having to leave home.

“Going to college meant that I had to grow up real fast,” Papa Yusupha Njie said. “The loss actually motivated me, and I never looked back. I made sure that I left the United Kingdom with excellent grades and honors degrees in electrical engineering and management.”

Njie’s academic credentials enabled him to land a secure, comfortable job as head of the information technology unit of the National Water and Electricity Company after his return to The Gambia. He stayed two years in that job. By 2000, he no longer could repress his entrepreneurial and humanitarian ambitions. He sold his car, persuaded several friends to lend him money and convinced a banker to grant him an overdraft allowance of $2,500. “Venture capital is unheard of in our part of the world,” Njie said.

Njie used the money he borrowed to open a cybercafé.

“People were shocked when I left my job,” he said. “There was no guarantee that I would succeed. There were other players in the market with deeper pockets. The norm was for people to work at one place till retirement with a salary guaranteed, company car, a good retirement package and other benefits.”

Njie used his cybercafé as an Internet training center for youths, holding intensive camps in the summer, when students were on break. “We had passion. We felt we knew a few things about technology that could make a difference in people’s lives,” Njie said.

The café’s camps ran four to six weeks and trained young people in Web design and hosting, printing, and computer repair and maintenance. Young people learned to use search engines to find schools, scholarships and, of course, friends. The cybercafé, in addition, provided a place to educate young people about the danger of HIV/AIDS. “We produced and filmed the first HIV/AIDS documentary on The Gambia, which was broadcast on national television,” Njie said.

Through the cybercafé, Njie launched Unique Solutions, a full-service information and communications technology company. Unique Solutions is building a wireless network that extends throughout The Gambia. For his efforts, Njie was named Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2006 by The Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry and two years later was nominated as Business Man of the Year 2008. He will come to Washington April 26 to be a delegate to the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship.

Njie’s vision for Unique Solutions is for it to become the first private Internet service provider that extends to every rural and urban area in the country. He feels that his decision to pursue the life of an entrepreneur in his homeland was the right one.

“Coming back home, I am one of a chosen few who have the opportunity to share my skills and knowledge with my community, and the entrepreneur in me tells me that, yes, I can make money doing it,” he said.

Jailbreakme

iOS hackers have released jailbreakme.com, a browser-based jailbreak utility for the Apple iPhone 4, 3GS, and 3G when running iOS 4 or 4.0.1. The jailbreak is reminiscent of one of the original jailbreaks for the original iPhone.

In addition to the above devices the jailbreak is compatible with an iPad running iOS 3.2 and 3.2.1 and an iPod touch 3G running iOS 4.0.


This jailbreak is simple to use, but before you start just be sure to sync and backup your device before hand. After you’ve verified a successful sync and backup browse to http://jailbreakme.com from Safari on your iOS based device to jailbreak it

Apple however are quick to respond to this latest so called threat to their IOS, so they've just release IOS 4.02. This update patches the PDF exploit which is used by JailbreakMe to jailbreak all iOS devices on iOS 4.0.1. If you want to keep your jailbreak and unlock, you better not update to this latest firmware now or you will be out of luck for long. Incase you have decided not to update, make sure you use PDF Loading Warner app which will make your web browsing safe. Of course if you care about security of your iPhone, then you can go ahead and update to the latest firmware from iTunes.

To update to iOS 4.0.2 for iPhone, and iOS 3.2.2 for iPad, all you need to do is to connect your iPhone/iPod touch/iPad with your computer via USB and start iTunes. You should now see a message as shown below. Simply click on “Download and Install” button to get on to the new firmware.

"Free The i-devices!!"

The Future of Broadband in the Gambia

The Gambia has just licenced a new Operator in the GSM industry, Globacom. Glo is a Nigerian telecommunication company who is also the sole owner of the GLO-1 submarine communications cable system running along the west coast of Africa between Nigeria and the UK with a 2.5Tbps ultimate capacity. The 9,800km cable stretches from the UK across West Africa and has landing points in Nigeria, London and Lisbon, connecting 17 countries to the rest of the world.

The licence will allow Globacom to land this gigantic trans-Atlantic submarine cable, Glo 1, in the Gambia with opportunities to extend the infrastructure to neighboring countries as well. It also gives the company the right to carry traffic for major operators, the government and wholesale customers in Gambia.
Most people are asking, with a population of 1.7 million, what do we need 5 GSM operators for? Well I believe these GSM companies did their maths and saw the benefits of being in the Gambia even if we don’t. For instance, Glo’s aim is to be the biggest and best telecom operator in Africa, it has licences in six other countries Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Benin Republic and Cote d’Ivoire. They are still pursuing 10 more licences around the sub region. They started operations in Nigeria in August, 2003, and in Benin in June 2008 and recently concluded plans to roll out services in Ghana.

African nations suffer from resource gap between urban and rural areas, low levels of education, the brain drain of educated citizens to wealthier regions of the world, and limited road, air, and rail transport networks. Furthermore, the business climate is risky due to small markets, non transparent systems of governance, time-consuming business procedures.
I believe Modern communications systems would alleviate many of these problems. It is clear from the Forum on Telecom/ ICT Regulation and Partnership in Africa (FTRA) meeting I attended last week at Kairaba hotel that most African nations and their investors and multi-lateral partners are racing to connect nations, towns, and people to broadband and mobile telephony as a means to stimulate economic prosperity and drastically increase human and social capital. (More details on the FTRA meeting will be posted later)

It was announce at the meeting that there will be five more fiber cables arriving in Africa, some operational by the second quarter of 2012. the latest addition is the ACE (Africa Coast to Europe) submarine communications cable which is a planned cable system along the west coast of Africa between France and South Africa. This will be the first international submarine cable to land in Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, The Gambia, Guinea, Liberia, Mauritania, Namibia, Sao Tome and Principe and Sierra Leone. Other countries benefiting from the ACE project include Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, France, Gabon, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Portugal, Senegal, South Africa and Spain (Tenerife). This cable has an overall potential capacity of 5.12 Tb/s, and will support the new 40 Gb/s technology from day one.
We are all optimistic that the cable will bring about lower cost of broadband services and abundant bandwidth to drive businesses for the next 25 years. You’ll notice I mention The Gambia from the list of countries getting a Landing point from the ACE cable. We are making a bold move in signing up for another landing point which will end our dependency to Sonatel of Senegal for international bandwidth. Unfortunately the status quo in the Gambia remains the same, or looks like its not going to change, as Gamtel is put forth to run and manage the landing station meaning every other ISP and Operator will go to them for bandwidth. This will only see us having a lot of bandwidth availability but little or no changes in the current broadband prices.
The Gambia’s Gamtel have also announced plans to upgrade the existing fiber network in the south bank of the Gambia to a next generation network (NGN) and run a new NGN fiber network in the Northern part of the Gambia of about 800km. This project will cost about $l8million. The North bank of The Gambia will be soon for the first time, be accessing telecommunication services through a fiber network.
According to Katim Touray, the current Managing Director and CEO of GAMTEL's Board and management, The NGN project is designed to provide the security and contingencies required to minimise the undesirable effect of Service outages due to fiber cuts mostly due to road works. Upon the completion of this project, the two main switches in Banjul and Serrekunda which were installed in the early 90s will be replaced with IP-based switches enabling the provisioning of new and enhanced services to Gamtel customers.
I believe that this is an opportunity for the Gambia to liberalise the Broadband industry, which will encourage competition and promote innovative services. Ghana is an example of an African country that liberalised the monopoly on their broadband service; Ghana is a beneficiary of at least four submarine cables, which brought about cheap access to broadband services for high rates of bandwidths.
This is an area where our Public Utilities and Regulatory Authority (PURA) could step in and advocate for an open market that promotes competition and infrastructure sharing.

Broadband Access In the Gambia

Although definitions of broadband vary, it is generally associated with “high-speed Internet access” via communication networks that allow for large amounts of information to be transmitted, quickly and often concurrently.
Broadband thereby gives users access to a wide range of resources, products and services that can enhance their business and/or social activities in significant ways.

West Africa gets access to broadband facilities mainly through the SAT3/WASC fiber cable. The SAT3/WASC cable runs from Sesimbra, Portugal – Passes through Senegal, Cote D’Ivoire, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Angola and ends at Melkbosstrand, South Africa.
The Current Capacity of the SAT3 bandwidth is around 120Gbps, plans are underway to increase this capacity to 340Gbps.

The Gambia, like many West African countries, gets its bandwidth from Sonatel of Senegal. Senegal has developed one of Africa’s most extensive and modern telecommunications infrastructures. Sonatel was one of the first African countries to introduce ADSL broadband service in 2003 which has almost completely replaced dial-up as the Internet access method of choice. The country has been a successful reseller of international bandwidth from its SAT-3/WASC landing station to other countries and will be able to expand this business with the new international fiber links, the first of which has already reached its shores.

The national bandwidth for the Gambia was 64 Mbps until it was upgraded around April 2010 to STM1 capacity (Synchronous Transport Module level-1, which has a bit rate of 155.52 Mbit/s)

The Gambia has a relatively well developed national backbone network. The introduction of wireless systems by three other ISP’s is beginning to accelerate developments. Gamtel has a monopoly on international bandwidth; the bandwidth they get from Sonatel is resold to local ISP’s in the country at a very high price who in turn resell this bandwidth to businesses and home users.

There are plans in the near future to have direct access to the new submarine fiber cable system; hopefully this will dramatically lower the cost of internet bandwidth in the country which is currently at an all-time high due to our dependency to Sonatel of. A home connection of 128kbps internet connection cost about $300 for equipment and installation and a recurring cost of about $30 per month.

It’s worth mentioning that a new Telecommunications/ICT Bill is expected to create a regulatory environment under which more competition will be introduced to more sectors of the telecommunications market. In view of convergence, the new law will be technology-neutral, which will also liberalise the use of VoIP Internet telephony.

The fact that there is only one fiber path from Senegal to the Gambia (Where all internet traffic passes through for the whole country) and from past experience with fiber cuts, which have disrupted services on more than one occasion, Gamtel and its Senegalese counterpart Sonatel are now extending their fiber links from Dakar through Kaolack, Karang, Barra, Banjul, Serrekunda, Yundum, Brikama to Seleti in Casamance to terminate on Sonatel's fiber network. The new infrastructure will provide an alternative route to the fiber link between Basse in Gambia and Velingara in Senegal, which was implemented in 1996. This will also eliminating the serious problem of disruption to bilateral international traffic whenever the older fiber is cut.

The Gambia is the smallest African nation, but we obviously have big plans for fiber and are making a wise and proper investment in the future of our country.