Pen2net

Pen2net est un projet de plateforme de blogs sur l’Afrique et pour les africains. Ce n’est pas une plateforme de blogs, le projet est ambitieux: offrir un espace d’expression illimité aux africains et à tous ceux qui s’intéressent à l’Afrique. Uncle Che, l’homme qui est derrière ce projet nous en parle ci dessous.

Can you present yourself?

I am Ferdinand Che, a music, movie and web lover who was brought to life in Douala, the economic capital of Cameroon on Feb 29^th, 1980. After completion of my B. Sc Degree programme at the University of Buea, I fell in love with Buea and decided to call it my second home, after Bamenda. To the people who know me closely, the nickname Uncle Che says I am kind, caring, helpful and easy to deal with. Best of all, I always strive to be happy.

My dreams are unlimited. Although I am slow in achieving them, the endless possibilities of them coming true gives me a better taste of life. I picture myself in the future as being a greatly loved Emcee or Music Producer, script writer or movie director, and above all a smart web developer. For the mean time, I put them all on hold and hold on to the web, thanks to Galax InfoTech’s SuperFast Internet Cybercafe where I can earn some francs CFA while at the same time enjoying unlimited internet access.

What is Pen2Net?

I first discovered the web and made it a friend in 2003. Since then, it has been my greatest passion. Though not very good at writing, I thought putting up something on the web for others to read may be a great adventure. After a very long time, in Nov 2007, I realized that owning a publishing space on the internet was far easier than what the myths in my mind bore. That is when I learned about blogging and starting creating and kidding with a few blogs (which I later deleted). When I finally became fully aware of what blogging was, I created AZ Blogging (www.azblogging.com) which sought to help out those bloggers I was a step ahead of. Later on, I realized not everyone has to learn the hard way, as I did, so I embarked on an easier and friendlier solution, Pen2Net. Before I continue, I would like you to understand that pen2net is still at its embryonic stage.

Pen2Net (www.pen2net.com) is a free blog creation and publishing platform built on the multi-user version of WordPress. The Pen2Net project seeks to improve awareness of blogging in Africa and encourage the creation of blogs directly or indirectly focused on Africa and Africans. This means that if you are an African who wants to start blogging, or you are a non African who wants to start blogging about Africa and Africans, Pen2Net is at your service. Pen2Net assumes you are a complete novice in the field of blogging. It assumes all you know is that you want to own a space on the internet where you can easily publish articles on a variety of topics or just keep up with an online diary.

Pen2Net basically does three things to help its members

· Offers free and unlimited blog hosting space (you don’t have to be tied down by the 10mb offered somewhere else)

· Offers a free domain names. After your blog is created and activated, Pen2Net allows up to 2 weeks for you to write and publish a few articles, after which any available domain name of your choice will be registered and configured to work with your blog. The domain name is being paid for, by Pen2Net, for as long as your blog remains alive.

· Offers unlimited support. If you are a complete newbie (novice) in blogging, your blog will be configured to appear and function the way you like it. You will also be provided with very easy blogging and writing tutorials and tips, starting with “what is a blog”. Every doubt you have will be cleared as long as they are made know either through an email to the Admins or a post in the forums.

More and more freebies will be provided to members depending on the support we get from prospective sponsors and donors.

What will you do after reaching the 1000 bloggers objective on your platform?

I was skeptical at first about the objective of 1,000 bloggers. That’s a big number, and I will like to look at it as a challenge, not only to me and my “staff”, but to the Afroblogosphere at large. If we all work collaboratively to help Pne2Net, we can have more than 1,000 friends and relatives joining us to blog by Dec 2009.

After we reach 1000 bloggers, maybe we can throw up a party, meet each other, talk about the Afroblogosphere, eat and drink, and introduce this project to the big guns so that they can help us have another 1000 bloggers by Dec 2010. Ha ha ha. It sounds like fun, but can really happen.

How do you finance this project?

“Where there is a means, there is a way”, my bright mum says, and continues, “but if you keep staring at the skies to see the means first without working out a way, heaven may not help you”. “Heaven helps only those who help themselves”, she concludes. I think she is right. I thought of starting first, putting as much personal financing into it as possible, before asking for help so that everyone would at least appreciate my seriousness. However, many friends promised helping as soon as I mentioned the project to them. This encouraged me to put a paypal donation form on the site and in other to test that the form and be sure that it works, I donated $10.00 myself. So far I have had donations worth $50. I hope there would be more people willing to give Pen2Net a helping hand.

What are your next projects?

Besides Pen2Net and three blogs I try to manage, the next thing I am willing to give myself to and make it happen is CamHood. Camhood, in its simplest description, is a music portal for unsigned and independent African artists. It is a place where they can host their music for fans to stream or download, create fan clubs and online radio stations, sell merchandise like CDs and T-shirts, socialize with each other… etc. CamHood (www.camhood.com) is a place where African unsigned and independent artists can have fun while promoting their music and selling some stuff.

CamHood is still in its developmental stage but I have already started creating real profiles, albums and songs there to help me test the features better. Some demo tracks by Survivor, Hot Ice (my humble self), Big Slim, Celobams, Sisy and Camselect, already feature there.

A Final Word

I am not much of a web tech guy but I really do care about the web and Internet usage in Africa. After I gain a studying seat at AfroVision Group, I am sure to start up a few solutions that will be of better help to the Afroweb.

God be my helper.

 

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