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The second edition of Barcamp Madagascar was held on saturday, July 4th, 2009 at Ivotel Ambohidahy. Bloggers, journalists, citizens wanting to know more about new media attended the workshop.
Lova Rakotomalala
This year Foko has choosen the topic “Crowd sourcing info in Madagascar” presented by Lova Rakotomalala. The new media which is a digital communication tool for spreading information using blog, twitter, youtube, flickr… The new media which is more and more appreciated due to its quick and instant flow is also growing in Madagascar. The need of new media has been highlighted during the crisis of Madagascar. Some boggers then took the floor to share their experiences. We could hear Andry (Foko Antananarivo), Jentilisa, Stefane (Foko Antananarivo), Jaona (Foko Fianarantsoa), Patrick (Foko Toamasina), Gaetan (Foko Antsirabe). The main purpose was about the Madagascar crisis. It seems like all of these bloggers exactly knew that they were running into troubles and big risks trying to take pics and eye-witness riots but could not restrain themselves from blogging.
We also had the priviliege to hear about different social networks: twitter, facebook, friendfeed… the web 2.0 by Thierry Andriamirado. By the way, it was the first time for me to meet @tandriamirado and I was really pleased. A blog is not enough if none knows about its existence, we do need social networks to get the interest of the followers, to share and to spread information.
The former Minister of communication, Tsilavina Ralaindimby attended the Barcamp 2.0. He acknowledged that Malagasy bloggers have done a great job throughout the crisis.
After a short break, the workshop kept on with Chris and Afick from the region of SAVA. They talked about a current project of establishing social radios in remoted areas in Madagascar. Working with Radio Active and BBC, Radio Ciel of Antalaha is now efficient.
Claire Ulrich
Claire, from Global Voice in French, talked about different cases of censorship all over the world. She said that nowadays, governments are aware of the power of internet and new media. This is the reason why they have created new systems to block disclosure of some information that may harm them. We recently heard about the case of Iran elections and the arrest of bloggers. Other cases of censorship are disappearance of the site or the bog, or some articles of the blog, or censored names which will be changed into unknown letters. How to avoid censorship? Claire advised each blogger to make sure to know the laws and regulations of their country in order not to give reason to the government to arrest them. Herdict.org has been created for each one of us about websites or blogs that do not run properly.
I attended the first edition of Barcamp Madagascar but blogging and stuff were too new for me to get really involved. This year was exceptionnally different because I sincerely felt concerned. Tahina and I should have even participated by presenting Foko-Ushahidi but I do not really know why at the last moment another guy has been invited by Stefane to talk about it. Anyway, it was cool.
Ushahidi which means “Testimony”is a social network which Foko has decided to work with inviting all citizens of Madagascar to report and to share any event, case, abuses… they have eye-witnessed by logging on http://foko-ushahidi.com or sending sms to (+261) 33 40 691 11.
Patrick and I 
I was so glad to meet, for the first time, Patrick from BUEC Toamasina. Nice to meet you dear
A big hand to all of us guys
More pics on My Flickr
The Big Boss
Wednesday, March 19th, FOKO Madagasikara organized a workshop about using Ushahidi at Teknet. This workshop was organized by Stéphane and led by Tahina ( a very good teacher 
).
working seriously
Recently, FOKO has signed up at this website called Ushahidi which means “Testimony”. Yes, and, from now, you are all invited to share all events you have witnessed at this link:
To take part into sharing news on Foko – Ushahidi, log on the link above, then go on Submit an Incident and start to report. To finish, you just need to Submit it.
You can put a link of a blog, a website or a video to support the information you share. See you all on
in the bus
So sorry, if it’s only now that I report our outting of December 21st. We, FOKO members had a picnic on that day. We made an appointment at the gate of the stadium of Mahamasina. We were supposed to leave at 9 a.m. but finally it was at 10 a.m. (waiting for late comers).
Did u think about buying Fresh for girls guys?
Stéphane and Ariel carrying the drinks.
dodo zaza ô
Kya brought the breads.
During the trip to Ambohidratrimo, we stopped for a while for shoppings: buying drinks and foods.
As soon as we arrived, we already started to eat and drink. [Tahina ; Koloina]
Lomelle and I knew we would still feel starved, so we left the pasta for laterer.
“Older” bloggers from Serasera shared experience to the new FOKO ones. Here, when I say Older, I do not mean age but life experience on blogging. Ok?
Hey time for pics guyz.
Ariniaina (me), Kya, DagoMC and Lomelle were the only girls at the party.
I could feel Stéphane a little bit nervous. I guess He worried we wouldn’t have fun though we did. Didn’t we, guyz?
listening to news on the radio
watching funny videos
playing chess
Ariel and Koloina were trying to feel smart playing chess lol [I'm just kidding guys]
doing karaoke
Our bus didn’t come to pick us up back to downtown; so we took another one which stopped at Antanimena. We walked to Analakely where we had a lot of FUN FUN FUN.
We all took a pic with dear Santa Claus. It was so cool. And to tell you the truth, it was the frist time I did such a thing. I always found it crazy and stupid. I still think so but it was also a lot of fun.
We made a lot of noise all around Analakely lol lol lol
It was hard to say goodbye because we had too much fun. When is the next outting guys?
