“The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has agreed to launch the country’s first scientific journal, which they expect to attain international standards and become a reference point within central Africa.” via @SciDevNet

I am a strong advocate for investment in research and development in developing countries. Professional journals are a part of that ecosystem of brilliant thinking and discussion. At least they should be. Africa needs this badly if it is going to be a hub and incubator of scientific knowledge, particularly with its vast resources of indigenous knowledge.

No word yet on how open/closed this journal will be, however. My hopes are that it is open access all the way. Time will tell.

Things have done a 180°.

The chair of my session has asked me to reconsider and I have obliged. Being embarrassed that my research is not complete, I didn’t want to pass up on this great opportunity. Eleven years ago I attended that same conference in D.C. where the theme focused on the use of technology in Africa.

This year the theme is “50 Years of African Liberation.” I will be discussing my paper on the historical context of gender disparity in education in Nigeria and how colonialism affected not only economic development policy, but also education policy. Should be interesting.

That day is finally here.

What I find exciting about this is that a concentrated effort is being made by the World Bank, UNOSAT, RCMRD, Satellite Sentinel Project, among others, to improve online interactive maps of South Sudan.

Being a mapping aficionado myself, it will be interesting to watch the progress that the East African mapping community makes and the implications to the development and aid community as South Sudan works to become a functioning state.

I will be presenting my research on “A Comparison of Educational Development in North and South Nigeria: Implications of Gender Disparity” during Session C on Saturday, March 5th from 1:15 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. (Room 403). You are welcome to join me and participate in this exciting symposium.

The full ESRI schedule is now available here.

The full paper will be peer-reviewed by none other than my own peers at GWU.

You might notice the topic of that paper because it’s the same paper I will be presenting at this year’s CIES in Montreal two months later.

Not only am I happy that my first graduate paper is getting exposure at two great venues, I’m happy that the issue of gender disparity in education is getting much-needed attention.

• The most important tip is that one must realise that academic publishing is a game. New academics therefore have to learn the rules and play by them – if they want to achieve success in terms that the profession’s gatekeepers have defined. Once your career is established, then you are in a position to try to change the rules!
• Write something that is reasonably good and then submit it to a journal. Referees are bound to suggest revisions, and so don’t be hurt by the comments. Use them, alongside your own developing ideas, to improve the paper and resubmit it – in most cases it will eventually be published (as long as it is reasonably good in the first place!)
• Publish less, but publish better; focus on quality rather than quantity. When I was head of department, I remember encouraging colleagues to make sure that they published just two or three papers a year in major journals, and a book every three to four years.
• Remember that few people actually read academic journals. If you want your ideas to have an impact, it is therefore essential that you make them available in different formats and contexts – as, for example, through your own blog.
• Only ever agree to have your supervisor’s name as an author on the paper if she or he has actually written a substantial amount of it! Good academics don’t need to have their names on your research – although it is always nice to recognise their advice in an acknowledgement.

Those are some wise words by Tim Unwin, UNESCO Chair in ICT4D and Professor of Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London (among other duties), for aspiring ICT4D (information & communication technologies for development) academics on breaking into the business that is academic publishing.

I especially like the mention in point #4 of offering your ideas through different formats and contexts. It is my conviction that ICT4D adherents should be champions of open research, particularly of the academic kind, to aid in the progress of higher institutions of learning in developing countries.

And that point got me thinking…

Point #1 about playing by the rules of academic publishers is especially disheartening, especially from my point of view as a new ICT4D academic. While we are continually scratching our heads, wondering what’s keeping African academic research from advancing, we are abiding by old rules of academics that were indeed created by an entirely different set of people for a different society.

While those rules continue to work (or do they? and here) for academics in developed countries, what about academics in developing countries?

Trying to bring African higher education into abiding by these antiquated rules almost reminds me of colonial overlords: drawing up random borders without concern for ethnicities, forcing an alien rule of law on the people, and exploitation of the people and land without regard for the development of the societies. In a sense, colonialism runs parallel to academic publishing in developing regions, whether in Africa or elsewhere.

I know I won’t be the first to say it, but Africa and other developing regions can do without the old rules of academic exclusivity. Restraints on academic publishing cannot and should not be adopted by institutions of higher learning in Africa. In short, Africa and the rest of the developing world needs an open publishing manifesto for academia. One written by African academics for African academics.

Africa is in a unique position to change the rules of the academic publishing game and challenge the old rules of academia. African techies in particular, and techies worldwide, are in a position to be involved at the ground level in a revolution in academia that could have a huge ripple-effect across the world. While I know that there is a strong interest in open academic publishing, it is yet to be widely adopted at African institutions of higher education. This needs to change if we ever expect African research to advance and participate on a global scale.

While there are plenty of other reasons African academics are not advancing, opening up the barriers to publishing could help tremendously. I can bear witness to the frustration millions of others must feel, at the thought that 99% of academic research is gated and publicly inaccessible. I, myself, am constantly weighing the pros and cons of openly publishing my research versus aiming for a prestigious journal closed to public eyes. The thought of forcing that upon African academia is preposterous. Adopting open publishing standards wouldn’t only have a drastic effect on the progress of development, but also on the advancement of African academia and its influence in the world.

As I know this post doesn’t touch on all the issues concerning academic publishing, and I’ll be the first to admit I have much to learn, I am hoping it can at least start some dialog about the need for changing the rules of academic publishing in Africa. That dialog includes you.

Feel free to leave a comment or link to a valuable open publishing resource below. Thanks for reading!

“Sponsoring organisations of Balesa and El-Adi boarding facilities could not incur watering expense since the nearest water point is 98 kilometres away across the desert in Horr town. Parents have shifted together with their children in search of water for livestock during the December holidays and they might not return quickly for opening of schools…”–Marsabit North District (Kenya) Education Officer Mr Simon Kimani

Once again, we are reminded of how everything in the world is inextricably linked together. In a nutshell, a drought in Northern Kenya has caused nomadic families to shift their herds to greener pastures, thus preventing their children from attending school. As many as 1,000 students will miss class.

Not only is Kenya affected, but also districts in Southern Ethiopia where a surplus of water is causing an influx of herders, and an influx of students who are straining the system. Concerns have been noted on the impact this influx will have on the quality of education. Also noted is the need for boarding schools in Northern Kenya for students whose families are herders.

What interests me most is the ways in which education for nomadic herders is handled. This is particularly a huge issue for many families throughout rural Africa whose educational needs are rarely able to be met by the system. This is a topic of interest I am going to have to explore further. Your thoughts are welcomed.

Starting Dec. 30, the Satellite Sentinel Project — a joint experiment by the U.N.’s Operational Satellite Applications Programme, Harvard University, the Enough Project and Clooney’s posse of Hollywood funders — will hire private satellites to monitor troop movements starting with the oil-rich region of Abyei. The images will be analyzed and made public at www.satsentinel.org (which goes live on Dec. 29) within 24 hours of an event to remind the leaders of northern and southern Sudan that they are being watched. “We are the antigenocide paparazzi,” Clooney tells TIME. “We want them to enjoy the level of celebrity attention that I usually get. If you know your actions are going to be covered, you tend to behave much differently than when you operate in a vacuum.”

That’s Mark Benjamin, writing for TIME.com about a joint experiment by the U.N.’s Operational Satellite Applications Programme, Harvard University, the Enough Project, Google, and a host of other heavy-hitting supporters.

Visit the Satellite Sentinel website here.

My favorite part of the visa: the titling of the “New Sudan”. Truly, 2011 will be the beginning of a New Sudan.

Why is it important? Well, for starters, it finally puts Africa on the map as an emerging economy (or a set of emerging economies). Not as if Africa isn’t already on the map as an emerging economy, but being listed as a part of BRIC most certainly helps.

Interestingly enough, South Africa wasn’t added to the list based on population or economics, both which dwarf that of other BRIC nations. But more likely the cause, SA accounts for a third of GDP in sub-Saharan Africa and can act as a gateway for the rest of the continent.

According to South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, joining the group is “the best Christmas present ever. We will be a good gateway for the BRIC countries. While we may have a small population, we don’t just speak for South Africa, we speak for Africa as a whole.” While I seriously doubt the other 50-something African countries would agree that South Africa speaks for them, it will be an interesting development to watch in 2011 and beyond.