Social network training

I recently had the opportunity to attend a Social Media training organised by OSISA’s ICT and Media Programmes at the Mount Grace Hotel at Magaliesburg. The ambiance and tranquillity of  the venue provided an ideal learning environment bar the patchy internet coverage.

The drastic changes in communication  and the need to urgently catch up has meant that one is not entirely a novice in social media. I have in the past year or so have had to open a Facebook and Tweeter account. I am also a user of BBM and have signed up with Whatsup and generally gotten to understand various other media that are available out there. Knowing these has to a significant extent been necessitated by the fact that one works in an environment that is facing significant governance challenges in which discreet communication is at times a necessity. States have also to a significant extent been investing in equipment that will help them keep tabs with what is happening in civil society. It is the general rule of every civil society actor that all telephony and internet communication  that is had is compromised hence the need for discretion. .

 Various other means of communication are known to be compromised.  Control of the airwaves and failure to allow new and independent radio initiatives to open up is a continuation of the overt control of what members of the general public should hear. The barring of the R40 million worth deal between Swaziland Post and Telecommunications Cooperation  (SPTC) and SEACOM on the undersea cable which would have significantly upped SPTC’s capacity is yet another indication   Even the current contest between MTN and SPTC  and government’s overt support for the former is a continuation of the contestation  for cheaper  and more reliable means of communication is yet another indication of the clampdown on cheaper and more reliable communication which the state is pursuing.

Social media has helped in opening up communication despite the aforegoing. For my own programmatic purposes it helps to free up communication and allows me to communicate my ideas to a wider Swazi public and other international audiences  that I would have otherwise not have had access to. Through this training one has been assisted to undertand the opportunituies that are availed by blogging . This is one means of communication that I hope to use going forward.